After a strong period in Australia, the Dutch squad has now shifted its focus to the Middle East this week. In the United Arab Emirates, the yellow-and-black team was presented with a flat course for the opening stage. All eyes were already on the expected bunch sprint finish in Madinat Zayed. That expectation proved correct, although the stage did not unfold without a fight along the way.

Strong winds caused splits in the peloton midway through the race. Martina Fidanza, one of Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women’s sprinters, was dropped early on. The riders of sports director Jos van Emden then moved to the front of the reduced peloton, with Nienke Veenhoven still well positioned. In the end, she finished thirteenth in the bunch sprint, which was won by Lorena Wiebes.

De Vries was able to make a positive impact along the way. She started the UAE Tour Women with general classification ambitions and collected three bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint. “Femke did that extremely well”, Van Emden says afterwards. “It’s a great first step toward a strong overall result here. These seconds could turn out to be important heading into Sunday.”

He is referring to the final stage, which finishes atop Jebel Hafeet. As was the case today, the chances of a bunch sprint are again high in the next two stages. “That is the other main objective we came for”, Van Emden continues. “It’s a shame we weren’t able to follow our plan today. Of course, we missed Martina in the finale. I think we rode a very good opening stage up until the final kilometers. Hopefully, we can improve tomorrow”, the sports director concludes.