When Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) made her unsuccessful cost for total glory on the Tour de France Femmes up the Col du Glandon, it wasn’t yellow jersey clad Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) that was ready to answer her pivotal assault, or any of the opposite pre-race GC favourites, however Pauliena Rooijakkers.
Rooijakkers snapped onto her compatriot’s wheel 2.4km from the crest of the hors categorie climb, and held onto it for practically all the last 60km, taking an unbelievable second place up Alpe d’Huez behind Vollering that moved her into third total and accomplished a ‘dream’ week for Fenix-Deceuninck.
The end result could have been a shock for a lot of, together with Rooijakkers, however sports activities director Michel Cornelisse all the time stored the religion.
“Those climbs [Col du Glandon and Alpe d’Huez] are becoming Pauliena very effectively, she confirmed already on the Giro, on the Blockhaus twice, that these climbs are excellent for her,” the sports activities director advised Cyclingnews after the penultimate stage to Le Grand-Bornand.
The 31-year-old Dutch rider headed into the ultimate stage in seventh total, nevertheless, she wasn’t anticipated to land herself on the general podium, along with her earlier finest GC outcomes coming ultimately month’s Giro d’Italia Women with fourth and the 2022 Itzulia Women, the place she was second to Vollering.
But with the hyper-aggressive Belgian group displaying their blue jerseys prominently within the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, as they did final yr, and Rooijakkers was spurred on to the climbing efficiency of her life.
“We had an enormous purpose of the highest 5, so to be on the rostrum we might be actually pleased as a group that we achieved that,” mentioned Rooijakkers after the ultimate stage.
She added third place total to a Puck Pieterse stage win and the 22-year-old’s victory in one of the best younger rider’s classification.
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“It was wonderful, in the event you advised us this earlier than the Tour de France, it’s a well known story however third within the total, profitable a stage, profitable the white jersey and being so sturdy within the race, we’d not imagine it. It’s a dream for us,” Cornelisse advised Cyclingnews on the group bus, referring to the gorgeous debut of Pieterse too.
Rooijakkers performed the tactical battle all through the ultimate having stayed with Vollering over Glandon, throughout the valley and up nearly all the 13.8km Alpe d’Huez climb. However, an all-out descent additionally noticed the Fenix-Deceuninck rider placed on the restrict within the valley, unable and unauthorised to assist Vollering as a lot as she may have.
“No, from the automobile they mentioned to take a seat in her wheel however I used to be additionally struggling in her wheel. I attempted to assault however there was not rather a lot in my legs anymore so I used to be pleased to stay on,” mentioned Rooijakkers who made a late transfer for glory after they reached the ski resort.
“That’s why I used to be sitting in her wheel rather a lot as a result of I didn’t need to blow myself up a bit and I wished to play the sport. She was combating actually for yellow and I used to be simply holding on, in any other case, I’d perhaps park myself on Alpe d’Huez and I didn’t need to let that occur.”
In her emotional post-race convention, Vollering revealed the wrestle she had when Rooijakkers stopped serving to her attributable to group orders. But Fenix-Deceuninck additionally mentioned that Vollering’s downhill push off of Glandon didn’t play into her favour.
“The downside was that Demi Vollering went full gasoline within the downhill and he or she killed Pauliena and likewise the lady from Arkea [Cavallard],” mentioned Cornelisse.
“If she goes just a little bit slower then we may have gone with three within the valley and labored collectively. Then I may have mentioned ‘OK assist her’ but when she’s dropped, then now we have nothing, so it was perhaps just a little mistake from Demi that she went full gasoline and we had no different selection however to observe as a result of if we get dropped then we aren’t on the rostrum.”
Cornelisse had excessive reward for group boss Phillip Roodhooft for his half in guaranteeing the lads’s Alpecin-Deceuninck and Fenix-Deceuninck groups have turned extra equal. A two-week altitude camp within the Alps laid the foundations for the squad’s gorgeous week of performances.
“If you see this group, coming from two years in the past, that man with the blue shirt is the massive boss,” Cornelisse mentioned as he identified Roodhooft by the bus.
“He believes within the group, he invests rather a lot within the group, as a result of we spent 14 days in La Plagne for the coaching camp and that’s not low cost however the massive boss believes in it and we’re very grateful for that.”
“This group is basically skilled, even doing the altitude camp along with the meals and all of the little issues we work on,” concurred Rooijakkers who joined from Canyon-SRAM after 2023. “There’s no separation with the lads’s and the ladies’s groups, they’re each equal.
“So we take the good things from them and so they additionally take the good things from us and with the coaches, all the pieces, it’s all equal and I believe that makes a extremely massive distinction and likewise the idea from this group helps rather a lot.”
Yara Kastelijn lit the fireplace for Fenix-Deceuninck on the Tour final yr with a magic solo win into Rodez. This season, that flame is just burning brighter by younger trailblazer Pieterse – who gained into Liège on stage 4 and took eleventh total – and Rooijakkers, the shock podium bundle who has discovered her finest legs into her 30s.
Fenix-Deceuninck might be again with ambition once more in 2025, and Cornelisse believes his two stars from this yr may play out the identical function for a while.
“You see how pleased the women are and also you see they’re solely getting higher and higher as a result of now we have Pauliena and Puck, so for subsequent yr we come again and we attempt for extra.”