|
Ruth Winder's bike throw in the sprint from the six-rider breakaway proved to be instrumental in snatching the victory from Demi Vollering (SD Worx), who threw her arm into the air in an early celebration.
The photo finish images revealed that Winder was the winner of the 6th edition of Brabantse Pijl Dames by millimeters.
Winder: “I am extremely surprised. I came to this race really wanting to be my best, and in the end it played out really well for me. I thought Demi had it! We were sprinting and I threw my bike at the line, but she really celebrated so I thought, “congratulations.” She’s an amazing bike rider and just for me to be second, I was really excited. For me to win is just…yeah..."
“This feels really good. The team has been very good so far, and I have had my best preparations this year that I have ever had. I am really excited that I could do it today.
“At the start we had Lauretta (Hanson), Shirin (Van Anrooij) , Lucinda (Brand) and Elynor (Bäckstedt) all watching the front and really making sure that we were safe. It was a really hard circuit with so many short climbs coming back-to-back-to-back on each other. It was really hard, and coming through the finish with one lap to go I saw Annemiek van Vleuten setting up her teammate Leah Thomas, and I was keeping an eye on Leah as she’s a fellow American and really strong, so I was on her wheel.
"They created this breakaway of six really strong riders, and there were enough from the big teams, and we were really working well together right away. Everyone was committed in the breakaway to roll through.
"I just had to be super patient in the finish, which was super hard for me; I really wanted to attack them all too soon! But I had Giorgia (Bronzini, director) in my ear and she was saying to be patient, and it worked by a centimeter!
“I was pretty familiar with the parcours, we raced here last year and I have done some course study. It’s also exciting that one of the climbs will be in the World Championships this year. It was good – I really like this race."
Photo ©Getty Sport
|
