Two of probably the most highly effective forces in girls’s biking of the final twenty years, Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, joined forces as soon as once more at Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio, with each Visma-Lease a Bike riders close to the entrance of Sunday’s race within the ultimate levels although finally Vos needed to accept a spot simply off the rostrum.
“It’s a pity that I simply got here up brief within the dash, as a result of I’d have preferred to take a pleasant place of honour right here,” Vos mentioned in a staff assertion after she made her street season debut for 2025. “Nevertheless, I’m proud of the sensation. A primary race like that is all the time a bit thrilling.”
A powerful break went with underneath 100km to go because the race was within the first lap of six across the ending circuit, with Visma-Lease a Bike’s Fem van Empel among the many group of round a dozen riders.
“It was good that we had Fem with us within the breakaway,” mentioned Vos. “Behind, we tried to remain sharp for the ultimate, by which there have been loads of assaults.
“Our job was to maintain management as a lot as potential. I believe we succeeded nicely in that.”
Vos and Ferrand-Prévot have been sturdy within the ultimate levels of the race, each in a bunch of 9 on the head of the race with 10km to go, nevertheless with Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) powering the pursuit from the group behind it was a bunch of round 16 that got here to the road to contest the dash.
Ferrand-Prévot tailed off the again whereas Vos fought for a spot up the entrance, coming over the road fourth as Elisa Balsamo claimed her third win on the race, now sitting on a tally one lower than Vos.
“Although the end result might have been higher, we will take this into the approaching weeks,” mentioned Vos.
The alternative, too, comes sooner fairly than later with each Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who completed third in Strade Bianche, slated to line up on the new version of the ladies’s Milan-San Remo on March 22.
The race will proceed the construct towards a key objective of the season for Vos, April 12’s Paris-Roubaix Femmes, an occasion the place she got here second within the first girls’s version in 2021.
