Kasia Niewiadoma recovered from a late puncture to finish among the peloton at the end of the opening stage of this year’s UAE Tour Women on Thursday. However, she was disappointed that her Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto team were unable to achieve a better result in the sprint finish.
The Polish champion is without doubt one of the sport’s preeminent climbers and started the four-day race among the favourites to take the GC after Sunday’s climbing stage to Jebel Hafeet. However, to be able to fight for overall victory, she cannot cede time to her rivals in a race known for its chaos and crosswinds.
Last year’s GC was all but decided on the opening day when the peloton was ripped to pieces by the wind in the opening kilometres of the first stage, and the weather threatened that again this time. However, despite the best efforts of some teams, the bunch stayed together, and with most of the riders competing in their first race of the year, legs were fresh, and there was a fight for every inch of tarmac.
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“Always the first race is always kind of a nerve-wracking just because you spend so many days, weeks, months, training with yourself or with a group of friends, and you think you’re strong and you improve, but you don’t know how you are against others. So it’s always like the moment of truth is ‘was my winter indeed good, or if there’s still something to improve?’”