This page contains the podium, decisive moments, tactical analysis, team verdicts, and per-rider performance reports. Read no further if you intend to watch this race unspoiled.
Elisa Longo Borghini won the 2026 UAE Tour Women — her third title in the race's four editions — with a Jebel Hafeet masterclass on the final stage, soloing clear inside 2.5 km to seize the overall from Lorena Wiebes, who had swept all three flat sprint stages. Monica Trinca Colonel (+0:16) and Femke de Vries (+0:17) completed the GC podium. Wiebes took the green points jersey, Eleonora Ciabocco the white young-rider jersey, and Canyon-SRAM the team classification.
OPENINGThe race split cleanly into two halves. The first three stages were flat desert sprint days, and Lorena Wiebes won all of them — a textbook opener in Madinat Zayed (stage 1), a tense bunch sprint to Hamdan Bin Mohamed Smart University (stage 2), and a hat-trick at the Abu Dhabi Breakwater (stage 3). She wore the red leader's jersey throughout, with the GC effectively neutralised among the finishers while the climbers waited.
UNFOLDSWith no crosswind splits materialising on the exposed highways, the entire overall came down to the single summit finish. The pure climbers — Longo Borghini, Trinca Colonel, Niewiadoma — conceded nothing through the flat stages, staying safely in the bunch and saving everything for Jebel Hafeet.
DECIDEDThe 156 km queen stage from Al Ain to Jebel Hafeet decided it. UAE Team ADQ controlled the long flat approach and set up the climb through Green Mubazzarah. Once the road tilted up the field shattered, Wiebes was dropped early, and inside the final six kilometres Longo Borghini ground down her rivals with repeated accelerations before the decisive 2.5 km solo.
FINALELongo Borghini crossed the summit alone for her second career Jebel Hafeet stage win, taking red and the overall in the same move. Trinca Colonel rode clear for second on the stage and second overall at +0:16; Femke de Vries was third at +0:17. Final winning time 13h 06' 32".
The home WorldTour team delivered the perfect result, controlling the queen stage and launching Elisa Longo Borghini to a Jebel Hafeet stage win and the overall — her third UAE Tour Women title. Lara Gillespie added two sprint second places on the flat stages, giving the team both a GC card and a fast finisher across the week.
SD Worx owned the flat half of the race. Lorena Wiebes swept all three sprint stages and wore the red leader's jersey from day one until the summit finish, ultimately securing the green points jersey. The only thing missing was a GC card for the mountain, where the lead inevitably changed hands.
Monica Trinca Colonel produced a career-level GC ride, animating the Jebel Hafeet finale with early attacks before riding clear of the chase for second on the stage and second overall at +0:16 — the strongest of the non-UAE climbers and a breakthrough podium for the team.
An aggressive, all-rounder week for Visma. Femke de Vries took third overall on Jebel Hafeet at +0:17, while 21-year-old Nienke Veenhoven was third on the stage 2 sprint, giving the team a GC podium and a fast-finish result across both halves of the race.
Canyon-SRAM won the team classification thanks to depth across the whole race — Kasia Niewiadoma fifth overall as the GC leader, plus sprint podiums from Chiara Consonni (2nd, stage 2) and Zoe Bäckstedt (3rd, stage 1). A strong collective early-season showing.
Kim Le Court-Pienaar climbed to fourth overall at +1:07 on Jebel Hafeet, the team's best result of the week and a solid early-season GC marker ahead of her spring classics campaign.
Eleonora Ciabocco, 21, won the white jersey for best young rider while finishing sixth overall at +1:25 — a standout U23 GC performance on the only mountain stage that marked her as one of the climbers to watch in 2026.
Won the GC by staying patient through three flat sprint stages and then delivering a Jebel Hafeet masterclass on the final day — a series of accelerations followed by a decisive 2.5 km solo that took both the queen stage and the overall. Her third UAE Tour Women title in four editions and a statement opening to her 2026 season on home roads.
Swept all three flat stages and wore the red leader's jersey from stage 1 until she was dropped on the Jebel Hafeet climb. Took the green points jersey for the week as the dominant sprinter, a perfect early-season tune-up before the spring.
Second overall after a career-level climb on Jebel Hafeet, animating the finale with early attacks before riding clear of the chase for second on the stage. The breakthrough GC result of her season so far.
The only rider able to briefly follow Longo Borghini's race-winning attack before being shed, finishing fifth overall as the leader of a Canyon-SRAM team that won the team classification.
Fourth overall on the strength of her Jebel Hafeet climb, a solid early-season GC marker ahead of her spring classics campaign.
The 2026 UAE Tour Women followed the familiar script of the race: the sprinters own the flat desert stages, and the GC is settled entirely on the Jebel Hafeet summit finish. Lorena Wiebes's clean sweep of the three flat days made her the story of the first half, but the only mountain test belonged to Elisa Longo Borghini, who turned a single climb into her third overall title. With Monica Trinca Colonel and Femke de Vries emerging as the strongest challengers and Eleonora Ciabocco taking the young-rider jersey, the race again served as an early-season form indicator before the European campaign.