Charlotte Kool claims first stage of UAE Tour Women after day of drama and crashes

Dutch rider pips Lorena Wiebes in sprint finish at Dubai Harbour

Charlotte Kool crosses the line to win the first stage of the UAE Tour Women from Port Rashid to Dubai Harbour on February 9, 2023. All pictures SprintCyclingAgency

Charlotte Kool of Team DSM celebrates her stage win.

The first stage gets underway at Port Rashid.

Day one action of the UAE Tour Women 2023.

Charlotte Kool on the podium.

UAE Tour Women day one action.

UAE Tour Women first stage action.

Charlotte Kool of Team DSM clinched the opening stage of the inaugural UAE Tour Women on Thursday after a dramatic day of crashes and a sprint finish at Dubai Harbour.

Kool completed the 109km sprint stage in two hours, 47 minutes and 14 seconds to lead a Dutch one-two with Lorena Wiebes of Team SD Worx in second, and UAE Team ADQ’s Chiara Consonni third.

“This is what I trained hard for, to win such a sprint even when not everything went well is amazing,” Kool said after taking the leader's red jersey.

“We did pretty well as a team,” she added after the opening day of the only World Tour race in the Middle East, which started from Port Rashid.

“We were there together in all the key moments, and they looked after me the whole day. They had confidence in me, and that gives me wings.

“We will go again tomorrow. The course will be different, the wind may also play a different role, but I can’t wait to sprint again.”

The day was marred by several crashes, including two within the last 4km, but the peloton arrived at the 750m finishing straight for a mass sprint.

“There were a lot of crashes, it was really chaotic, and we lost some strong riders,” Kool added.

“I had a bit of a miscommunication with my teammate on the last straight, but I just had a really, really good sprint and made it all up again. I was not really looking to Lorena [Wiebes] but just doing my own thing, but it sure feels good to be in front of her.”

The first crash took out Matilde Bertolini (BePink) who eventually had to withdraw. Silvia Persico and Eugenia Bujak (both UAE Team ADQ) also went down but were able to continue.

With 4km to go, a big crash in the middle of the peloton held up many riders including Kim De Baat (Fenix-Deceuninck), Tamara Dronova (Israel Premier Tech Roland), Ilaria Sanguineti (Trek-Segafredo), Sarah Roy (Canyon-SRAM), Alice Barnes (Human Powered Health) and several of Kool’s DSM teammates.

Another 10 riders, including Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), Persico, and Emilia Fahlin (FDJ-SUEZ), went down with 2.7km to go, but were given the stage winner’s time because of race rules.

Friday's day two is a 133km sprint stage from Al Dhafra Fort to Al Mirfa.