Megan Armitage has said her ride in the UAE Tour was a learning experience, especially with her eyes fixed on the classics in the weeks ahead, even if she took a hard tumble in the Middle East.
The EF Education-Cannondale rider suffered that crash in the final of stage 2, coming down on her own when she ran out of road inside the final 2km. And while she was able to pick herself up and continue, it was a nasty incident.
However, she went on to ride the next two stages, including the summit finish to Jebel Hafeet, and eventually came out of the World Tour race with her first UCI points of the season due to her final general classification position.
On Jebel Hafeet she was 23rd, from a field of 114 riders, some 3:51 down on solo winner Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime), who went on to claim overall victory. Armitage ended the race in 24th overall, at 4:07, which secured 16 UCI points.
“Can’t say I knew what to expect when I saw this race on my calendar but it will definitely be one to remember,” she said of the four-stage UAE Tour. “It was super nice to have my first World Tour race with the team and I think we can be proud of how we improved each day.
“After hitting the deck on stage two, I was a wee bit disappointed with how I performed on stage three’s Jebel Hafeet. But I gave it a crack.
“And I’ve come away having learnt heaps that will definitely come in handy with the classics just around the corner,” she added of her next races, which are provisionally Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (1.WWT) on February 24th and Le Samyn des Dames (1.1) three days later.
Armitage, who is in the first year of a three-year contact with EF Education-EasyPost, is then pencilled in to ride Strade Bianche Donne (1.WWT), Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio (1.WWT), Gent-Wevelgem(1.WWT) and Tour of Flanders (1.WWT) next month.
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