News: GB Women Do themselves Proud

Several times in the Women’s Title race, GB riders looked like being in the race for a medal – post race reactions from them

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News: GB Women Do themselves Proud

Melissa Lowther was first to move – responding to an attack by Sweden’s Sara Penton, before going it alone in the opening laps. Lowther was reeled in towards the end of the third lap before relative calm within the peloton until the final three laps.

First, Hannah Barnes responded to an attack by Dutch rider Amy Pieters, the group moving 35 seconds clear at one point. The attack looked set to be reeled in on Salmon Hill before Elinor Barker helped Barnes up the climb, and Barnes pushed on with Dutch and Australian company. On the penultimate lap, Dani King attacked with Dutch riders Annamiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen in hot pursuit.

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Lizzie Deignan responded, and following an issue on Salmon Hill, caught the group on the descent, only for the attack to be reeled in once more. On the approach to the bell for the final lap, Hannah Barnes made another move, followed by Audrey Cordon of France and Netherlands’ Chantal Blaak – the group getting 45 seconds away from the peloton on the approach to the final climb.

Salmon Hill was final chance to stop the break from sweeping up the medals and the peloton responded. Van Vleuten and van der Breggen responded, joined by Australia’s Katrin Garfoot and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma with the group of seven having a 43 second lead on the descent and looking certain to sweep up the medals.

After a teammate had attacked and been reeeled in, Blaak countered and burst away, opening up a 20 second gap, with her Dutch teammates stalling the chasing group to protect her chances of gold. With no-one workking with Barnes, the move by Blaak who had crashed earlier in the race proved decisive and the Dutch teammate of Deignan crossed the line alone to become world champion, winning by 28 seconds.

Barnes and the chasing group suddenly found the peloton on their tails in a sprint for the other medals with Garfoot getting silver and Denmark’s Amalie Dideriksen winning bronze. Barnes crossed the line in 14th, with King 20th and Deignan 41st, a further ten seconds back.

Whilst in many of the races, the team has gone close to medals, GB today didn’t quite get there but it wasn’t for want of trying and for a long time, a medal looked on the cards. Who knows, if the race had been a few K shorter, that may well have happened.

The GB girls certainly did themselves proud and afterwards spoke to Jill Douglas:

Hannah Barnes: “I went pretty hard the final time up Salmon Hill because I knew there was going to be a strong group of riders coming across. So I knew I needed to be at the top when they got there because it would have been a struggle to stay with them.”

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“At the finish, it was hard with three Dutch there and being out numbered and Julian (Winn) said I should pick a Dutch wheel to follow and I picked the wrong one when they were making the moves! It was quite frustrating having the Dutch there and no-one wanted to work, settling for second place. But for me to be up there with the best …..”

“I stood up to sprint but my legs had nothing left. I can’t really be too disappointed. Leading up to the race, the GB group really bonded; we were spending two hours at the dinner table every night, so I knew coming into this we were going to do everything we could to get a good result and I think every move that went up the road we were there representing, some times two of us. So we really raced it and can be proud of that”.

Dani King: “Julian said to us, when you attack, you have to go full gas, don’t look behind and for 30 seconds give it everything. So that is what I did and I think it was a good move at the time because it meant I had a head start up Salmon Hill, like Hannah did the lap before.”

“Like Hannah said, we really bonded as a team this week, and I think everyone stepped up so much today and I think we did this jersey proud for sure.”

Lizzie Deignan: “I am so pleased for Chantel (a trade teammate for Lizzie). Obviously disappointed for us. On paper, the Dutch were the strongest but in the race, I can’t praise my team enough. They were phenomenal and we had everybody in a move and everyone stepped up.”

Asked how she was feeling after having her appendix removed three weeks ago, she said “I was grovelling away, I really was. It is not a nice position to be in at a world championship but they are always hard and to be honest, they (GB girls) kept me going. If I hadn’t been in a team as strong as that, I would have been tempted to pull out but I thought I can’t let these girls down and knew I had to be in there as long as I can.”

“I cannot praise all the riders enough, they were phenomenal and really stepped up their game, and that is so valuable moving forwards going into a world championship next time when we’ll have numbers like the Dutch had numbers today and they won the bike race but we’re catching them up!”

Womens Title Race
1 BLAAK Chantal NED 4:06:30
2 GARFOOT Katrin AUS +28
3 DIDERIKSEN Amalie DEN
4 VAN VLEUTEN Annemiek NED
5 NIEWIADOMA Katarzyna POL
6 MAJERUS Christine LUX
7 ANDERSEN Susanne NOR
8 VAN DER BREGGEN Anna NED
9 FAHLIN Emilia SWE
10 CECCHINI Elena ITA
11 FERRAND PREVOT Pauline FRA
12 KIRCHMANN Leah CAN
13 BRAND Lucinda NED
14 BARNES Hannah GBR
15 VAN DIJK Ellen NED
16 LELEIVYTE Rasa LTU
17 GUTIERREZ RUIZ Sheyla ESP
18 RIVERA Coryn USA
19 ROY Sarah AUS
20 KING Danielle GBR

41. Lizzie Deignan
48. Hayley Simmonds
66. Elinor Barker

DNF
Alice Barnes
Melissa Lowther
… continued after advert

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JUNIOR MEN RR
There was a fourth place for Jake Stewart in the Junior Men’s race.

Kazakhstan’s Gleb Brussenskiy and Graydon Staples of Canada made the first major move, managing to create a bit of distance. That split the peloton, with a small chasing group including Donovan, working hard to join the leaders. With around 100km remaining, they bridged the gap and formed a strong leading group, with a gap of around 55 seconds ahead of the peloton.

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Donovan assumed a senior role within the leading group, taking control to get them up the formidable Salmon Hill climb. Germany’s Leon Heinschke bridged across, soon followed by Kazakhstan’s Daniil Marukkhin and Italy’s Luca Rastelli to form a group of nine riders clear at the front with 50km remaining. The group’s numbers were boosted by another rider as the Czech Republic’s Karel Vacek worked hard to get across and join them – but that move seemed to inspire the peloton to take up the chase themselves.

As they approached the beginning of the penultimate lap, the gap was less than 20 seconds – but somehow the leading group resisted. As they approached the bell, with the peloton closing, Donovan attacked with Brussenskiy and Italy’s Luca Rastelli and they pulled further clear, joined by four other riders, including Denmark’s Julius Johansen – who immediately pushed on himself and opened a gap of around 10 seconds.

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Great Britain Cycling Team’s Mark Donovan was at the front of the race for over 100km. Donovan was sat in the chasing group – themselves around 30 seconds clear of the peloton with just over 10km remaining, but they had no answer to Johansen’s attack which secured him the title by 51 seconds. Rastelli chased in vain alone, with Donovan in a quartet with Dutch rider Thyman Arensman and Italy’s Filippo Zana and Luca Colnaghi to battle out for bronze.

But the peloton had other ideas, pushing the four all the way – with the toll of being at the front of the race for over 100km proving too much for Donovan, who didn’t contest the finish.

That allowed a chance for Jake Stewart, who burst from nowhere in the closing stages, but couldn’t get around the Italian duo, with Rastelli taking silver and bronze going to Colnaghi as the British rider finished fifth, just missing out on a medal.

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Junior Men
1 JOHANSEN Julius DEN 3:10:48 +0
2 RASTELLI Luca ITA 3:11:39 +51
3 GAZZOLI Michele ITA
4 MARKL Niklas GER
5 STEWART Jake GBR
6 KIERNER Florian AUT
7 ZANA Filippo ITA
8 HJEMSAETER Olav NOR
9 FEDOROV Yevgeniy KAZ
10 HINDSGAUL MADSEN Jacob DEN

25 66 PIDCOCK Thomas GBR
37 68 VAUGHAN Jacob GBR
47 65 DONOVAN Mark GBR 3:12:06 +1:18

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