This is just the race report and a blog about my experience
in France will follow shortly.
For the first time in a Europe I lined up for a race that I
have done before. Having competed in the
Tour Feminin en Limousin (UCI 2.2 Tour in the province of Limousin, France) last
year gave me an idea of what to expect this time around. With Marianne Vos and her Dutch National Team
on the start list we knew that it was going to be a tough four days of racing.
The race consisted of three road race stages and one
individual time trial on the second day.
All three road stages were on rolling terrain through the countryside with
some low gradient climbs and twisty forest roads.
Our team for the race was Kaat Hannes, Kim Schoonbaert,
Cherise Taylor, Joline Goossen and I.
A break with Marianne Vos and two other riders went early in
the first stage of 128km. We attacked and
followed several moves on the first climb and got away with a small break on
several occasions but nothing was staying away.
The bunch split on this climb and a group of about 35 riders went to the
line. When we realised that nothing was going
to stay away Cherise and I covered all the moves to try and set up our teammate
Kaat for the finish. She was still in contention
for the best young rider jersey. I have
never race this hard for 4th place before and this would end up
being the second hardest day of racing I have ever done according to the data
from my SRM. The top finisher of our
team was Kaat in 13thplace.
Cherise finished 14th and I was 22nd.
The second stage was the individual time trial on a very
technical and twisty 18km route. Since
we are not used to the handling of the time trial bikes I decided to just ride
it with my road bike. I finished 28th,
Kaat 44th and Cherise 47th.
Stage three was another 128km stage similar to stage
one. We attacked on the climb but
because of the low gradient a break could not get away. A break with seven riders went a few kilometres
later in the stage but neither of us was able to respond. The bunch split into several groups after
that. Cherise and I finished in the
second group of about 20 riders in 9th and 19th place. It was another top 10 finish for Cherise.
We all lined up with tired legs for the last 120km
stage. Even the neutral zone in the
beginning of the race hurt like hell. After
a rocky start to the stage the legs warmed up a bit and after several attacks I
finally got away from the bunch. The
idea was not to get in a solo break but I got a good tempo going and decided to
just give it a shot. After about 20km a
Norwegian rider, who was high up in the general classification, crossed over to
me and then the bunch was in full pursuit to bring back the move. The deciding break for the day went shortly
after that with three riders and I could not immediately respond. We were a group of about 50 riders after
that. Kaat had good legs today so we
were going to try and set it up for her at the finish. Cherise did a good job of helping Kaat to a 5th
place on the line. She ended up
finishing in the top 10 again with a 9th place.
In the general classification I finished 18th,
Cherise 20th, Kaat 30th and Kim 63rd. To take the experience gained from the Giro
Donne to this race was great. Last year
I was 31st in the general classification. Being able to see that I am still improving
and learning with every race definitely builds confidence for the upcoming
races.
Our next big race will be the nine day La Route de France
starting on the 4th of August.
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In a solo break during the final stage
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