The problem was that the front group had so many kilometres to ride into a headwind after breaking up the peleton - The DSM sprint lead outs are a thing of beauty.
That's the profile from the men's race. 185 km would have been interesting though.
I know Gaia Realini was pretty lucky the Cavalli group was allowed to come back and that she probably didn't do many pulls during the long chase, but it was still surprise to see her do some turns at the front with about 12 km to go and still managing to hold on when Canyon SRAM upped the pace again.
It was an awesome ride by Nina Kessler who single-handledy got Baker and Faulkner back into the front group after it split in the crosswinds in the last 10km.
It looks pretty good for Longo Borghini now, unless Persico or Faulkner has better legs today.
I guess DSM is riding for Peperkamp, who looked quite good on Norefjell last year where she worked for Lippert.
Was gonna be interested in climbing times of Jebel Hafeet to get a somewhat clean comparison of mens climbing times to womens climbing times, but now with this echelon action I'm not so sure.
Alright, now I need them to Vino/Kash this and Elisa to gift André the stage (which would actually settle the GC) for the CQ game and I am now super in favour of Realini at Trek.
Dani then talking about how good a job Realini will be able to do for Lizzie Deignan when she returns and now I hate the Realini to Trek signing.