For British team Le Col-Wahoo, the Women’s Tour is one of the main objectives of the season and they play an active role in the hunt for first place in the GC and special ranking jerseys.
On Stage 2 to Harlow, the team took a three-pronged approach with Marjolein van’t Geloof as the protected rider for the sprint finish – eventually finishing fourth – while Maike van der Duin and Gladys Verhulst had carte blanche for the intermediary. sprints and QOM sprints, maintaining van der Duin’s lead in the red sprint jersey as well as the pursuit of the yellow leader’s jersey and the green mountains jersey.
In the opening stage the previous day, Van der Duin won both intermediate sprints and received the red sprint jersey for his efforts. But she was also a threat to the leader’s yellow jersey since the accompanying bonus seconds placed the 20-year-old Dutchwoman in third place overall, four seconds behind stage 1 winner Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle -Aquitaine Futuroscope).
“On stage 1 it wasn’t the main focus to go for the sprints, but we were there and we just went there. And then I got the sprint jersey and I was also in the GC so that became one of our main targets we made a plan that we really want to go there because it’s a very good situation for the general classification and in the best case scenario I could become the leader,” Van der Duin said ahead of stage two.
Van der Duin won the first intermediate sprint on Tuesday while Copponi finished third, closing the gap to just two seconds – but in the second intermediate sprint Copponi beat the young Dutchwoman, taking a second back. Van der Duin is now second overall, three seconds behind the yellow jersey, but has a comfortable lead in the sprint standings where she has 11 points to Copponi’s four.
Van der Duin’s priority on the coming stages will be to defend the red sprint jersey: “Our main objective is to protect our leader so that she is safe and in the best position, but we have the jersey so we will go there the same way. like the previous two days,” she said.
And as the race progresses, Van der Duin faces new experience – the Women’s Tour is her first six-day stage race – and she’s only done three-day stage races until now. Wearing the red sprint jersey gives him extra motivation.
“It’s really nice to be in this situation. We have a good team spirit. I’m enjoying it a lot and I’m looking forward to the next few days. I don’t think it’s my first big stage race, we’ll see how it goes at the end, but the jersey is a nice goal for the week,” she said.
On the hillier side of things, Gladys Verhulst had competed in the QOM sprints on the first day of racing, collecting three QOM points. In the last 20 kilometers of stage 2, Toot Hill and Stonards Hill gave him two opportunities to pick up the green QOM jersey which was on the shoulders of Christine Majerus (SD Worx) after stage 1.
Verhulst was well placed on Toot Hill and could take the maximum four points, beating Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) and Majerus and then found himself leading the race.
“I got on the Canyon train before the QOM sprint. When Majerus left, I got on his wheel and then I started the sprint,” Verhulst said. “At the top I saw there was a little gap, so I went for it,” said said the French.
Verhulst quickly found a breakaway mate as Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) attacked from the pack after the hill.
“The girl from Human Powered Health joined me moments later, and we went as far as possible together. I hadn’t thought about winning the stage, I’m taking things as they come,” said Verhulst.
She put four more QOM points to her name by winning the second QOM sprint, but Majerus led the pack up the hill, picking up two QOM points in the process and defending her jersey by one point: Majerus now has 12 points while Verhulst has 11.
Their fight for the QOM green jersey will continue on Wednesday’s Stage 3 from Tewkesbury to Gloucester which features two Tier Two hills before the stakes are even higher on two stages through Wales.
