UAE Rider of the day – Charlotte Kool dominant in headwind final sprint
DSM sprinter blasts past Wiebes to come out on top in early season sprint battle
Given the geography of the UAE, it was always likely that the first-ever Women's WorldTour race in the Middle East, the UAE Tour Women, would be dominated by sprinters.
So it proved on the final day of four in Abu Dhabi, with Charlotte Kool coming out on top with two stage wins to her, both at the expense of the woman she led out at Team DSM last year, Lorena Wiebes.
The pair have much in common – they're both 23, hail from small Dutch towns just south of Amsterdam, and they can claim to be among the top sprinters in the sport.
Wiebes is the more established name, with 60 wins on her palmarès including an incredible 23 last season. Kool continued her development working for her compatriot and recording two wins along the way but, in their first outing as rivals since 2020, it was she who came out on top.
On stage 1 in Dubai, Kool jumped out of the wheel with 150 metres to go to power past and claim the first win of the race, while a day later it was Wiebes who profited from the DSM lead-out to beat Kool to the line.
The final stage, however, saw Kool claim the most decisive – and impressive – win of the lot, though, coming from far back into the headwind to pass Wiebes inside the final 100 metres.
This time, it was FDJ-Suez and Human Powered Health who led the way inside the final kilometre before DSM's lead-out came to the front for the key moments late on.
It wasn't Kool on Pfeiffer Georgi's wheel, though. Instead, Wiebes once again hitched a ride to the final couple of hundred metres before launching a long sprint into the wind.
Kool would be the one raising her hands as she crossed the line this time, taking her 'score' against Wiebes in what looks to be an exciting sprint rivalry to 2-1 for the season.
Fellow 23-year-old fastwoman Chiara Consonni of home team UAE Team ADQ would also blast past Wiebes late on, the Italian's second podium of the week demonstrating that it might yet be a three-way battle – not to mention veteran winners like Marianne Vos.
Analysis
Another pan-flat outing in the UAE was always going to result in a sprint finish. The windy finale at Abu Dhabi Breakwater, facing out to the Gulf, was another chunk of the route borrowed from the men's race – Fernando Gaviria, Caleb Ewan and Mark Cavendish have all claimed wins there in recent years.
It was no surprise, then, to see another chapter in the Wiebes-Kool battle unfold, though what was perhaps more surprising was how Kool dominated those final metres.
Georgi had taken to the front after the too-early trains of FDJ and Human Powered Health ran out of riders in the wind.
The only problem for Team DSM was that Kool wasn't on her wheel. Instead, Wiebes had slotted in as if she hadn't made the switch to SD Worx over the winter.
"I lost my lead-out, Pfeiffer. It wasn't on purpose," Kool would later reflect. "It was really hectic."
Starting from that prime position, Wiebes was the first to go as the peloton sped around the long right-hand curve towards the finish, jumping out with some 150 metres left to run. In regular conditions, it would be a fairly standard place to start a sprint but racing into the wind was a different proposition.
Behind her, Kool would be sheltered a little behind Movistar's Emma Norsgaard, but she had to wait patiently before launching her own sprint with Norsgaard eventually letting a gap open up on the inside of the bend.
"I just knew I had to be patient and hope that there would be a gap. I saw the gap and went full," Kool said.
By 100 to go, Kool was free and bridging the two-bike length gap up to Wiebes' wheel, a chance to briefly linger in the slipstream before making a final move for the line. It took some doing to make that bridge, and then even more to power through and open her own gap inside the final 50 metres.
In the end, Kool made the win look easy, crossing the line a solid three bike lengths ahead of Consonni and Wiebes, another victory to add to the collection and the points jersey at the year's first Women's WorldTour event to go with it.
Our previous riders of the day
- Stage 1: Charlotte Kool (Team DSM)
- Stage 2: Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM)
- Stage 3: Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo)
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.