Lily Williams rode a picture-perfect race on stage 2 of the UAE Tour, joining the winning five-rider move in the crosswind for a 110km breakaway, before sprinting to second on the stage.
Splitting the peloton practically from the gun in the 111km stage from Al Dhafra Fort to Al Mirfa, the 30-year-old joined Elisa Longo Borghini, Lara Gillespie, Karlijn Swinkels (all UAE Team ADQ) and stage winner Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx – Protime) for a desert odyssey that at 48.407 km/h was the fastest women’s race ever.
“It’s super satisfying to get my first WorldTour podium,” Williams said afterward. “It’s great to feel that I’m still growing and changing and to be part of the action in a WorldTour race is encouraging and I take a lot of confidence from it.”
With 17 mph winds blowing over the exposed desert road coming out of Al Dhafra Fort, the athletes were in the thick of the action right away. A well-planned ride to the sign-on podium kept the rider’s muscles warm and ready to make an impact from minute one.
“After yesterday’s sprint I set my all-time best one-minute power so I knew I had that tool in the bag,” the team pursuit Olympic gold medalist explains. “I wasn’t stressed when it split. I was able to ride to the front quickly. It didn’t feel hard at the time but it did hurt me later because my heart rate never came down after that. Once we got together it just rolled.”
The five got a maximum gap of three minutes and were helped further by a second area of exposed road blowing the race apart once more. Behind, Romy Kasper made it into a chasing peloton that proceeded to hover at a gap of a minute, with a second group that included stage favorite Charlotte Kool (Team Picnic PostNL), hemorrhaging time behind.
“It’s easy to hope the bunch will come back to you but the kilometers were ticking over fast so I just tried to put my head down and suffer,” she said.
With high commitment in the front five and not enough riders chasing behind, the gap climbed again.
“At a certain point UAE told us that they were riding for time and would not attack which was fine by me, I was truly on the limit,” she said. “We hit a headwind section and suddenly we had three minutes and then Lorena and I realized this is when we need to contribute now. I assumed the peloton would just let us dangle but all of a sudden we had this gap and we all knew once we got to the tailwind it would be easier to maintain.”
Performing in the next section of tailwind was the key to the breaks survival but no significant dent was made to the lead.
“It was hovering at a minute forever so at that point we figured it would stick”, she said. “It was windy which is why the race was so quick but the willingness to create an echelon and sustain that effort for 110k is a symbol of people understanding what’s happening in a bike race. It will always be a bit different to men’s racing but we’re moving towards the standards that maybe people think you would race on a stage like today.”
Wiebes then sprinted to take the win with Williams coming over best of the rest, a great showing from the American.
“I felt confident in Spain last week in a variety of new scenarios,” she said. “The team has professionalized a lot since we entered the WorldTour. Not only do I feel confident about myself but I also feel confident that when I do any job, somebody will be in the right spot to finish it. We’re all working well together so we now have a lot of opportunities we didn’t have before.”
Tomorrow sees the queen stage of the UAE Tour with the climb to Jebel Hafeet. Williams goes into the stage third on GC with race favorite Longo Borghini in charge of a commanding time buffer over the rest of the climbers.
UAE Tour Women stage 2 result
1 WIEBES Lorena – Team SD Worx – Protime 2:17:35
2 WILLIAMS Lily – Human Powered Health ”
3 GILLESPIE Lara – UAE Team ADQ ”
4 LONGO BORGHINI Elia – UAE Team ADQ ”
5 SWINKELS Karlijn – UAE Team ADQ ”
6 LACH Marta – Team SD Worx – Protime 1:26
7 CONSONNI Chiara – CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto ”
8 DE ZOETE Mylène – CERATIZIT Pro Cycling Team ”
9 CONFALONIERI Maria Giulia – Uno-X Mobility ”
10 FERRAND-PRÉVOT Pauline – Team Visma | Lease a Bike ”
Photos: GettySport
