UAE Women’s Tour: Dani Rowe outlines why Lorena Wiebes is so good after SD Worx clinch ominous season-opening win

Dani Rowe admitted stopping Lorena Wiebes is easier said than done after the SD Worx rider claimed a dominant victory in the first stage of the 2024 UAE Women’s Tour.

The Dutchwoman was the heavy favourite coming into the season-opening race and showed why as she timed her final sprint to perfection to cross the line comfortably clear of Rachele Barbieri (DSM-Firmenich) in second and Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) in third.

Asked on The Breakaway, Eurosport’s post-race show, what makes Wiebes so good, Rowe said: “She’s got the best team in the world for a start.

“She has a world champion [Lotte Kopecky] as a lead-out and she ticks all the boxes, physically, mentally, and that’s why she’s so good.”

SD Worx are undoubtedly the team to beat as we enter a new season of cycling after claiming 62 overall wins last campaign, including seven GCs, 24 Classics and 30 stage victories.

But Adam Blythe believes the other teams missed a trick and said there was a chance to take advantage of the tricky conditions and isolate Wiebes from some of her team-mates early in the race in Dubai.

“In this situation, you can see how windy it is. Everything’s on the left-hand side of the road, there should be a full team committed way, way, way before this in my eyes, rather than just to an intermediate sprint,” Blythe added.

“If you’re going to put pressure on a team, there was Kopecky there with Wiebes as well protecting her, but they [the other teams] are up towards the front just in case of danger. If you’re that up towards the front anyway, try and nip a few seconds.

“You can see how strung out it is, you can see that it’s in one big line, I just think there’s an opportunity missed within a team to realise SD Worx isn’t all together, there’s going to be some that miss out here, and Wiebes could be one of them, Kopecky could be one of them.

“It’s just at those points where in that mess, like we saw in the sprint today, if they’re not together, that’s when you can really take advantage of it. And there would have been moments, nervousness coming into that crosswind section, where everyone would have been all over the shop.”

Rowe agreed that teams need to be more “savvy” in order to make the most of every small opening that is presented to them, but said that “today was maybe not the right day to try and do that”.

Ahead of the first stage, Rowe also outlined the size of the task facing other teams this year, especially in the sprint races.

“We know they’ve been working on their lead-out,” Rowe continued.

“They came in as relatively unknown in their lead-out last year and they won two of the stages of the UAE Tour with Lorena, and this year they’ve been working on it and they’re even stronger in that domain.

“So if every other team rides to them, they’re just going to lose, without a doubt.”