Saah Roy sprinted to fifth place in today’s opening stage of UAE Women’s Tour in Dubai, UAE. Crosswinds tempted to split the peloton several times in the 109km stage, but in the end, it was a large peloton that sprinted for the first leader’s jersey.

“I think today’s race overall, as well as the outcome, was a positive day for us as a group and something we can confidently build on now. Fifth is good. It’s not a fairytale day or the dream result, but we have gained confidence from this and can collectively see where to improve and, more importantly, that we can,” said Sarah after the finish.

Agnieszka Sklaniak-Sójka had an impressive debut for CANYON//SRAM Racing, taking maximum points on the first of two intermediate sprints. A crash with 4.5km remaining in the stage kept Agnieszka from leading the intermediate sprint classification. She will go into tomorrow’s stage in second place and equal on points.

Today’s stage was won by Charlotte Kool (DSM). Sarah is the team’s best-placed rider in the general classification, in ninth place at +10 seconds.

HOW TO WATCH

The UAE Women’s Tour starts on Thursday, 9 February, and can be followed on Twitter with #UAETourWomen and #UCIWWT. The stages are broadcast live on Dubai Sports from km 0 and on GCN and Eurosport at 12:00CET.

Stage 2 | Al Dhafra Castle – Al Mirfa | 133km

Stage 3 | Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium – Jebel Hafeet | 107km

Stage 4 | Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Sport Academy – Abu Dhabi Breakwater | 119km

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