Latest News

Six Eddy’s

August 03, 2010 - Filed under: Rider Blogs

Comments (1)

1,5 Week ago, halfway the Thüringen Rundfahrt I was telling you about the podium spots we got in the last weeks, but the victories we missed. And now, only a few race days later I have only victories to tell you about! I don't think it was because of this blog, but you never know, but right away the next day after I wrote it (the second last stage of Thüringen) Sarah won the stage! And one day later, I was the one who could enjoy the feeling of passing the finish line as first. My first victory of the season, and my first for the Cervélo TestTeam, so it was a special one. It was also special because it was the last and one of the hardest stages of the tour. With 20 k's to go I attacked from a breakaway group of 8 riders and reached the finish solo with a lead of 1.5 minute. I was of course very happy, but Egon (the sportsdirector) was maybe even happier! When he was riding behind me for the last 10 k's, he got so enthusiastic in his cheering he really thought he was riding behind the (female) reincarnation of Eddy Merckx (which he told me at least 8 times in the radio).

So with three podium spots and two victories we went with a lot of confidence to Sweden, for the next races: The WC TeamTimeTrial and the Vargarda WC. Especially the first race, the TTT was important, it was one of the biggest goals of the team this year. And knowing the team won this TTT for the past three years made me feel a little nervous... With my last team I finished third last year in this TTT and then I was thinking about how cool it would be to be a part of this superfast Cervélo TestTeam. And now I was part of it, I got a little scared by the idea that maybe with me in the team, we wouldn't win this race! But the nerves were for nothing. We had a great team (Emma, Kirsten, Sarah, Charlotte, Regina and me) and we did a great race. Already halfway we had a 50 second advantage to the next teams and we even managed to make the gap bigger in the second half. Despite the bad weather, we did not only a super fast race, but also a technically perfect race (even better than some men's team Egon said later, and from his mouth, this is the biggest compliment us girls can get!). Even the slippery corners weren't a problem for us. Now you can see that your concurrents can be such strong individual (timetrial)riders, a teamtimetrial is something different. It's so important that you ride smooth and decent, don't kill each other and use everybody's strength. And when you have a perfect race, like we had last week, it feels like you're part of a TGV and it's a enormous thrill. All our trainings for this on the trainingcamps last winter paid off. After the race, I asked Egon if he felt today like riding behind 6x Eddy Merckx, because for me it felt like this!

Not a lot time for celebrating though, because next race was coming up in only two days. And again we wanted to win of course. In the pissing rain, Emma (Pooley) attacked straight away in the first lap and stayed in front half the race. In the meantime the sun broke through and it stopped raining. Swedish hill's are maybe not so impressing, but when they let you climb them for a lot of times, for sure they also become hard. So reaching the final we had a lot of attacks but nothing held long and it looked like we would reach the finish with a small bunch. One rider, Marianne Vos, knew to surprise us though with a very hard attack on the last climb. And with six kilometers to go, she got a gap of 15 seconds. Sarah, Charlotte, Regina and me put ourselves in the front and we rode our second TTT of the week! With only 600 meters to go we cached Vos and Kirsten finished our perfect teamwork by winning the sprint. Oefff, what a thrilling final! But what a great feeling to have a second WC victory in less than 48 hours!

Now I'm riding with my teammates to Copenhagen Airport, all tired but satisfied. It is quiet in the van, some are sleeping, some are just staring and maybe day dreaming about last week... I stop typing now, and close my eyes for a little nap. In a few hours I will be back in Holland, and then we start all over again, preparing for the next races. But this great memories of the last two weeks can nobody take away anymore!