Luxemburg National Champion Christine Majerus wins the opening Aviva Women’s Tour race into Norwich, as the Boel Dolmans train lead-her-out in the closing kilometers.
Stage One, June 15th 2016 Southwold to Norwich 132Kms.
Luxemburg National Champion Christine Majerus wins the opening race into Norwich, as the Boel Dolmans train lead-out in the closing kilometers.
After a riveting final twenty-five kilometers away that saw Cylance Pro Cycling’s Alison Tetrick almost clinch the victory, only to be caught with-in sight of the finish line. The scene has been set for the next four-days-of-racing as the Aviva Women’s Tour returns for a third successive year.
Ninety-One girls took the start in Southwold, before setting out on an eighty-nine kilometer journey away from the coast in Sussex.
The first action of the day came only twelve kilometers-in and the Strava Queen of the Mountains competition saw a big effort from IIona Hoeksma [Parkhotel Valkenburg] taking the first points towards the polka-dot jersey.
As the race settled in, the peloton lit-up on the run-in to the Chain Reaction Points Sprint in Beccles with Liv Plantur lifting the pace before been swallowed-up by the General Classification contenders of Vos, Elvin and Armitstead battling the time bonuses that could play a crutial roll later in the day in what has been described as the Sprinters Stage of the Tour.
A crash soon after saw half-a-dozen girls caught-out and Tetrick who won the days combativity award was one of the riders involved.
A long drag up-to the Strava Queen of the Mountains second climb was led by Orica AIS, but another big push by Hoeksma sealed the first Jersey of the Tour in this first UCI Women’s World Tour event here in the United Kingdom.
The second Chain Reaction Points contest came soon after the eighty-five kilometer marker and Leah Kirchmann [Liv Plantur] lined the peloton up on the run into Pulham Market. Christine Majerus first place over the finish line puts her in the Points Jersey, but Vos on equal points will wear the jersey for Stage Two from Atherstone tomorrow.
Tetrick set about her solo ride to into Norwich with around twenty-five kilometers remaining. Gaining around one-fifty-six over the peloton, at five kilometers the gap had dropped to one-twenty-one. Tetrick still had sixty-seconds going under the flame-rogue and looked like the victory was hers for the taking.
Boels Dolmans had other ideas and a four-rider train wound up the chase with World Champion Lizzie Armitstead contributing their efforts for Majerus.
A rather technical twisty finish kept Tetrick out of sight as she stood out-of-the-saddle giving every pedal stroke her maximum effort. The speed of delivery from the chasing teams saw Majerus, Vos and Bronzinni sweep by Tetrick with under one-hundred meters remaining and coming around the final drag-to corner Majerus powered to victory and into the Tours first Yellow Jersey.
After careful consideration overnight, the commissionaires awarded the same finish time to the first seventy-nine riders over the line. Emma Pooley, Lisa Brennauer and Gracie Elvin found themselves on the wrong side of the time gap.
Christine Majerus – Stage One Yellow Jersey Holder – Post Race Reaction.
Press: Did you look at the finish before today stage.
Christine: We suspected it would come down to a sprint. We had a look at the course yesterday, it’s really technical.
That was the plan, to lead me down to the final corner and the girls did a perfect job. I didn’t have to do anything in the race, so I just saved my legs for those last three-hundred-meters. I’m happy I could finish the work off.
Press: What about the breakaway? Did that change your plans that Tetrick held on for so long at the end? Were you concerned you weren’t going to catch her back?
Christine: I have to admit I didn’t really think about it. I was so focused on staying in the group in a good position. So when we turned left I wasn’t sure whether we had caught her back. I couldn’t see her coming up.
So yeh, it was a brave move, all credit to her.
It was going really fast in the final ten. I’m happy we could bring her back, but I wasn’t concerned.
Press: How did you feel when you crossed that line?
Christine: A big relief because it was pressure today being the leader for the last three-hundred meters. I have the best cyclists in the World riding for me today, so I have to win, there’s no excuse. It’s a big relief and I’m really, really happy to come back and have this Jersey again.
Press: What does the Women’s Tour mean for your-self in this Calendar winning stage one. How good is that going forward.
Christine: Yeh, this is one of the biggest races in the calendar this year and it’s moved up to World Tour. So this is actually my World Tour win which makes it better. We are really motivated to keep going and winning.
Alison Tetrick: I was able to make a bold move with around twenty-five kilometres to go, and you go as hard as you can!
You never believe you can win until you cross the line, but oh-man with ten metres to go – at that moment – I believed I could win. But to get past there was tough, but it was super exciting.
Hear Christine Majerus talking to the press on CyclingShorts in full.
Hear Alison Tetrick talking to the press on CyclingShorts in full.
Roll of Honor for Stage One
Stage winner 26 MAJERUS Christine Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam LUX
Combativity award 126 TETRICK Alison Cylance Pro Cycling USA
General classification Aviva
26 MAJERUS Christine Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam LUX
Points Chain Reaction Cycles
26 MAJERUS Christine Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam LUX
Queen of the mountain Strava
103 HOEKSMA Ilona Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team NED
Best British Adnams
21 ARMITSTEAD Elizabeth Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam GBR
Best young Stoke-onTrent European City of Sports
43 MACKAIJ Floortje Team Liv – Plantur NED
Best Team Aviva
Raboliv WomencyclingteamRBW
Overall leader – Yellow Aviva
26 MAJERUS Christine Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam LUX
Points – Blue and white Chain Reaction Cycles
91 VOS Marianne Raboliv Womencyclingteam NED
Queen of the Mountain – Polka Strava
103 HOEKSMA Ilona Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team NED
Best British – Cyan and pink Adnams
21 ARMITSTEAD Elizabeth Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam GBR
Best Young – White Stoke-on-Trent European City of Sport
43 MACKAIJ Floortje Team Liv – Plantur
Stage One Top Twenty
1 26 MAJERUS Christine 00″ DLT LUX B:10″
2 91 VOS Marianne ‘ ‘ RBW NED B:09″
3 13 BRONZINI Giorgia ‘ ‘ WHT ITA B:04″
4 31 BASTIANELLI Marta ‘ ‘ ALE ITA
5 81 LEPISTÖ Lotta ‘ ‘ CBT FIN
6 42 KIRCHMANN Leah ‘ ‘ TLP CAN B:03″
7 92 BRAND Lucinda ‘ ‘ RBW NED
8 126 TETRICK Alison ‘ ‘ CPC USA
9 15 LONGO BORGHINI Elisa ‘ ‘ WHT ITA
10 43 *MACKAIJ Floortje ‘ ‘ TLP NED
11 36 TREVISI Anna ‘ ‘ ALE ITA
12 103 HOEKSMA Ilona ‘ ‘ PHV NED
13 116 RADOTIC Mia ‘ ‘ BTC CRO
14 16 PIETERS Amy ‘ ‘ WHT NED
15 11 JOHANSSON Emma ‘ ‘ WHT SWE
16 12 D’HOORE Jolien ‘ ‘ WHT BEL
17 5 CROMWELL Tiffany ‘ ‘ LPR AUS
18 21 ARMITSTEAD Elizabeth ‘ ‘ DLT GBR B:01″
19 121 *RATTO Rossella ‘ ‘ CPC ITA
20 111 BUJAK Eugenia ‘ ‘
