The first edition of the Dubai Women’s Tour is done and Team Hitec Products – Birk Sport will return to Europe with two victories. After winning the first stage, Lucy van der Haar also won the general classification of the four days stage race. In the final stage, Amalie Lutro got her first podium spot in an UCI race. She sprinted to the second place in a sprint of five riders.
“I am so happy”, Lucy said after she heard that she won the Dubai Women’s Tour. Before the last stage, she was four seconds down on leader Tatsiana Sharakova. During the stage Lucy got seconds back in the intermediate sprints. As the leading group took al the bonification seconds at the finish, there were no seconds left for the peloton and so, Lucy took the win.
It took a while after the finish of the stage, before it was clear that Lucy won the race. “It was so close. Until after the finish we weren’t sure if I had won the race or not. It is nice to do this after not winning a race in a while. The stage itself wasn’t hard today, but there were a lot of attacks and that made it hard. The team did amazing to try and bring everything down and chase everything back. That was really good. We rode so strong together. This is a good start to the season and hopefully we can carry this on.”
Second place for Amalie
With the riders who competed for the general classification in the peloton, Amalie got away in a group and sprinted for the win. “That was a new situation for me”, she said. “To be in a break competing for the stage win. I knew I shouldn’t work and just tried to win the stage. Luckily we won the overal GC with Lucy. What a team!”