Daria Pikulik sprinted to her first WorldTour podium of 2024, finishing third on the final stage of the UAE Tour Women.
Benefiting from expert positioning from her lead out, Pikulik maneuvered herself into prime position at the end of the 105km Abu Dhabi sprint stage, hitting a maximum of 952 watts in the sprint to finish strongly against double-stage winner Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx – Protime).
“I am really happy about the podium,” Pikulik said. “I’m really proud of the girls and the job they did today. We knew that we could do this. The team here is new so we needed some time but that was fast to finish on the podium so we can be happy about it.”
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It’s the 27-year-old’s third fourth WorldTour podium having won a stage of the Tour Down Under as well as the Tour of Guangxi and finishing second in a stage at the Tour of Chongming Island.
“I am a bit closer to Wiebes so I’m happy I didn’t lose her wheel. I also tried to come out from her wheel so that was a really good feeling that year-on-year I am better at the finish.”
The train of Romy Kasper, Maëlle Grossetête, Wiktoria Pikulik and Linda Zanetti guided the speedster through the finale before Silvia Zanardi delivered the sprinter onto Wiebes’ wheel with the pair creating clean as they sprinted on the right.
However ahead, Amber Kraak (FDJ – SUEZ) had outwitted the peloton with a dramatic solo ride, attacking from a four-strong breakaway and holding the chase off to take a superb victory after 90 kilometers out front.
The first WorldTour bunch sprints for some of the team, the lead-out has had an impressive evolution throughout just three group kicks.
“We started with bad luck with crashes but it’s impressive that in just the third race we did this really good job so we can be confident and proud for the future,” says Pikulik. “I came here with really strong legs and I wanted to finish the job and we finished with a good feeling. Thank you to the staff here and everyone, they are awesome as usual,” she ends.
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- Beginning in the archeological marvel, the Louvre Museum. Photo: GettySport
Pikuliks efforts at the intermediate sprints meant that she deputized in the leaders jersey – for GC victor Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx – Protime) – on the final day, eventually finishing third in the standings.
Next up, the team heads back to Spain for the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana stage race starting February 15 before the ‘opening weekend’ of the Spring Classics, Omloop Nieuwsblad.
UAE Tour Women stage 4 results
1 KRAAK Amber – FDJ – SUEZ 2:27:33
2 WIEBES Lorena – Team SD Worx – Protime ”
3 PIKULIK Daria – Human Powered Health ”
4 CONSONNI Chiara – Team UAE ADQ ”
5 FORTIN Valentine – Cofidis Women Team ”
6 BARBIERI Rachele – Team dsm-firmenich PostNL ”
7 AHTOSALO Anniina – Uno-X Mobility ”
8 SKALNIAK-SÓJKA Agnieszka – Canyon//SRAM Racing ”
9 COPPONI Clara – Lidl – Trek ”
10 TOMASI Laura – Laboral Kutxa – Fundación Euskadi ”
