On paper, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) successful stage 1 of the Tour of Britain Ladies wasn’t a shock on Wednesday. As soon as once more, the quickest sprinter in girls’s biking prevailed. However the workforce had gone into the stage with a number of choices and solely determined to go all-in on a dash comparatively late – although that call was type of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“As soon as a powerful group had gone clear and we had the suitable riders in there, we waited for fairly a very long time to see whether or not or not the stage may very well be determined from a breakaway. When it grew to become clear that this wouldn’t be the case, we made the choice to maintain the race collectively and convey Lorena to the end in the absolute best place,“ defined Christian Kos, the workforce’s sport director on the British stage race.
„Excellent teamwork as we speak, and we’re very pleased with the consequence.”
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SD Worx-Protime had 5 riders within the decreased peloton of 32, and solely Femke Gerritse had not made it. Wiebes was joined by Mischa Bredewold, Lotte Kopecky, Julia Kopecký (no relation), and Steffi Häberlin. Bredewold, Kopecky, and Häberlin jumped after the opposite groups’ assaults within the last 30km.
The presence of Wiebes within the peloton behind meant that they hardly ever had the chance to get a breakaway going. As soon as an SD Worx-Protime rider had made contact with a transfer, the opposite riders stopped pushing, as they anticipated Wiebes’ teammate to only sit on and didn’t need to drag them to the road.
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“Each time the race cut up, we had been at all times nicely represented within the totally different teams. The workforce did a terrific job as we speak,“ Wiebes mentioned later.
For a quick time with about 12km to go, Häberlin and Bredewold had been in a entrance group of 4 along with Aude Biannic (Movistar) and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek). Nevertheless, Markus, particularly, was unwilling to decide to a transfer with Bredewold, who’s a a lot stronger sprinter.
„After the intermediate dash, the tempo went up once more and it stayed laborious till round 5 kilometres from the end. On the slender roads, it was typically troublesome to maneuver in the direction of the entrance of the decreased peloton once more, so staying nicely positioned was vital,” mentioned Wiebes.
“Steffi Häberlin and Julia Kopecky first saved the tempo excessive. Then it was as much as Lotte Kopecky and Mischa Bredewold to take over the lead-out. Lotte introduced Mischa and me completely into the ultimate nook with round 500 metres to go. Mischa then saved the pace excessive, and with 200 metres remaining I used to be capable of launch my dash. It was executed rather well.”
Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) completed runner-up on the stage, beating Josie Nelson (Picnic-PostNL) to second place by half a motorbike size. The Italian sprinter wasn’t massively stunned by SD Worx-Protime’s multi-pronged ways.
“They’re a extremely robust workforce, and so they can plan various things, not solely the dash with Lorena. I feel additionally they need to be good within the GC with Lotte and Mischa. We tried to combat with Cille [Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig], she was additionally tremendous robust on the climb. Possibly we attempt one thing totally different within the subsequent days with a breakaway from far out,” mentioned Consonni.
Stage 2 is a 110.5km route from Clitheroe that fits for a dash end beside Blackpool’s well-known Mirror Ball.
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