CHIARA & KASIA LEAD DYNAMIC LINE-UP AT UAE TOUR WOMEN

An exciting and dynamic CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto team will take on the UAE Tour Women from February 5-8, with riders arriving from a mix of Australian summer racing, European training blocks, and a cyclo-cross winter campaign (guess who?).

Tiffany Cromwell and Neve Bradbury come to the event with seven Australian summer road racing days already in the legs. For Tiffany, it marks her fourth appearance in as many UAE Tours held for women, while Neve returns for her second after a breakthrough 2024 race, finishing runner-up on both the iconic Jebel Hafeet stage and in the General Classification.

Chiara Consonni also lines up for her fourth UAE Tour, carrying a strong tally of seven stage top 10s, including two second-place finishes.

Completing the roster are three UAE Tour debutants: Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Maria Martins, and Zoe Bäckstedt, who arrives in strong form after wrapping up her cyclo-cross season with seventh in the elite race at the World Championships.

The 2026 UAE Tour Women follows a familiar format to years gone by, with four stages of predominantly flat, exposed racing, except for the gruelling 10.7km ascent of Jebel Hafeet. With steady gradients of 8-9%, the climb typically proves decisive for the GC. Elsewhere, relentless wind across open highways and long desert stretches remains the race’s great disruptor, capable of shredding the peloton and upending GC ambitions.

A key change this year sees Jebel Hafeet moved to the final stage, keeping GC suspense and speculation alive until the very end. Previously, the summit came on stage three, leaving GC contenders with one day to wait and defend before celebrating fully. 

Hear from Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Chiara Consonni and Head of Sport Adam Szabó before the season’s second WorldTour stage race.

Kasia

– How are you feeling ahead of the UAE Tour?

“I find the start of the season always a little tricky just because every season I say I feel good, because I do feel good, but you only know how you truly are once you start racing. Because, of course, in the winter time, you mostly train on your own, or with the group, but training is not racing. I feel like very often I start the season feeling confident and powerful, and then the race starts and reality hits.

I definitely feel better than last year at this time, but of course everyone improves, so I almost feel cautious saying whether I’m good or not. But, I changed coach this winter and had a very nice preparation – a different type of preparation than what normally I would do. I’m curious to see how that’s going to reflect in my racing. I also managed to go through winter without any sickness or injury, so that’s always a positive – nothing was stopping me. So, it’s not like I have big hopes, but I do have expectations for myself coming into UAE.”

– ⁠⁠What would make it a successful first race of your season?

“Definitely a victory. Winning in the first race of the season would set us up really well and put us in a very good mindset for the upcoming races. But, I’ve seen the rough start list and there are a lot of big names coming, so it won’t be easy. It’s never easy, but I just want to go out there and push my limits, and get a result that would boost me mentally before the classics begin. I do also accept the part that if it doesn’t go well, it’s still a great indicator of how much work needs to be done before the real goals arrive. It’s not a secret that the main ‘big’ goal is Strade Bianche for me, as it is every year. I’ve tried different approaches to arrive to Italy in peak shape previously, so UAE is definitely a part of that preparation, but it’s also a race I where I want to perform well. We’ll see very soon how everything has gone!”

– Heading into the race, what’s one thing you’re excited for?

“I’m just excited for the season to start. I think that it’s been a really good winter of training, but it’s always nice to get things going and be back to reality. It’s always nice and comfortable when you stay in your home with your close ones, but also going for races and pursuing your dreams does add extra excitement into your life.”

Chiara

– Did you approach this winter differently compared to previous years?

“To be honest, this year I was a bit scared because it was the first year that I didn’t do a training camp in December. In San Marino, where I live now, the weather was not 100%, but I still did really good training. Especially in the gym – I’ve worked on it more in the last year. I think we start this year with a really good mentality and base thanks to the January training camp. We did a great work together there, so we are ready to start.”

– How are you feeling ahead of UAE Tour?

“I’m really, really happy to start this 2026 season. I think we trained super good all together in Spain; we were not a big group, but I think we really worked well. The weather was good and we built a great feeling together, on top of last year. Physically and mentally, I’m ready – super ready to fight this year.”

– Is UAE a key opportunity to build strength and confidence in the sprint group?

“For sure, we really want to start in a good way and we know that UAE is a great opening race because we have a lot of chances to train our lead-out. Especially with Zoe and Tata, as I think they will share a lot of races with me. We also worked on it a lot in the training camp, but we know that training and races are two completely different things. But, I think we start with a good base and we know that we now need to practice in the race, but we are really excited to do that.”

Adam

– What are the team’s key objectives?

“That we further ourselves with the sprint train and put in good lead-outs. This is what we identified as a work-on in the off-season and we specifically prepared for it. We have not just done more physical training, but also technical training – specifically on setting up a train. This is still an ongoing process but here we will have three potential stages where we can fine tune it before the classics and the big races further on in the season. It’s time to put findings and training into practice.”

HOW TO FOLLOW 

Stage 1 – UAE Tour Women | Thu, Feb 5 | 2.WWT | Al Mirfa – Zayed City | 111.6km | 451m elevation | start: 13:45 – fastest finish: 16:20 GST (13:20 CET).

Stage 2 | Fri, Feb 6 | Dubai – Dubai | 145km | 509m elevation | start: 12:50 – fastest finish: 16:18 GST (13:18 CET).

Stage 3 | Sat, Feb 7 | Abu Dhabi – Abu Dhabi Marina | 121.3km | 511m elevation | start: 13:30 – fastest finish: 16:21 GST (13:21 CET).

Stage 4 | Sun, Feb 8 | Al Ain – Jebel Hafeet | 156.5km | 1175m elevation | start: 12:25 – fastest finish: 16:17 GST (13:17 CET).

The UAE Tour Women will be broadcast live on TNT Sports, Eurosport, Discovery+ and FloBikes – timings TBC. You can also follow the race on X using #UAETourWomen and #UCIWWT, as well as through the CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto social channels.