Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) crossed the end line in tears as her hopes of profitable the opening stage on the Tour de France Femmes and claiming the yellow jersey on dwelling soil got here to an abrupt finish resulting from a contact of wheels and a mechanical inside 500 metres to go that prevented her from sprinting in The Hague.
An unfortunate contact with Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility) within the last dash triggered Wiebes’ derailleur to interrupt off her bike. With the chain dragging loosely on the bottom, she was compelled to take a seat up after which slowly coated the remaining distance earlier than collapsing to the bottom as her teammates did what they might to console their devastated sprinter.
“I noticed that her chain and every little thing was off her bike on the within, and I do know that somebody rode into her again wheel. She could not dash as a result of her chain was off, and he or she was standing nonetheless,” Vollering instructed Cyclingnews on the end line.
Mischa Bredewold, who was a part of the ultimate lead-out, wrapped her arms round a distraught Wiebes as Vollering, Blank Vas, and Niamh Fisher-Black tried to find out what had occurred within the last dash after the staff delivered an impeccable lead-out into the ultimate 3km right away to the end line.
“Lorena’s chain dropped off. We can not do something about that. You can not journey your bike with out a chain. It occurred within the final couple of hundred metres. The lead-out was going very well, and I do know it was tremendous early, however the entire staff is so robust, and we made it work, however you want a series to dash,” Bredewold instructed Cyclingnews.
“We knew it was going to be tremendous hectic, and that’s the reason we would have liked to be in entrance all day, and that was onerous. We will go along with a re-match tomorrow.”
Vas was the closest rider to Wiebes within the dash when Ahtosalo’s entrance wheel by accident touched Wiebes’ rear wheel, simply as Wiebes’ had drifted to the proper facet of the highway, the contact inflicting the derailleur to come back free. She mentioned Wiebes’ chain regarded damaged, however up till that time, every little thing had gone to perfection.
“We did an excellent lead-out, and that is very unfortunate as a result of I feel she had a whole lot of probabilities to win right now. Of course, that is in her dwelling nation so, for certain, she wished to win. It’s simply unhappy as a result of everybody was so nervous. She couldn’t even attempt, so that is annoying. I hope the bunch will probably be calmer, and we will attempt once more,” Vas instructed Cyclingnews.
SD Worx-Protime piloted Wiebes completely into the ultimate kilometre earlier than an unintended contact of wheels with Ahtosalo seems to have triggered the mechanical. Unaware that Wiebes’ had stopped pedalling, her teammate Barbara Guarischi began the ultimate lead-out.
However, it was eventual stage winner Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) who got here out of her slipstream to take the lead and maintain off the problem from Ahtosalo, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), Lotta Henttala (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike).
“She is pissed off, after all, in case you make an enormous name of this and you might be able to dash and are in an ideal place and somebody touches your again [wheel], then you may be pissed off, after all,” SD Worx-Protime staff supervisor, Danny Stam, instructed Cyclingnews.
“We’ve recognized for a very long time that we have now had an excellent lead-out practice and that we have been centered forward of this stage. We know the primary two levels are superb for Lorena. I feel we knew precisely how we should always do it and it went excellent till she couldn’t pedal anymore.”
Wiebes can have one other alternative to dash on Tuesday’s stage 2, 67.9km race from Dordrecht to Rotterdam.
“Tomorrow is a brand new day, a brand new dash, in all probability, and we hope we will maintain the derailleur on. We know we will do good issues within the dash. I’m fairly certain that tomorrow we have now a brand new struggle.” Stam mentioned.
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