Blues active in windy, muddy Ronde van Drenthe

UCI Women's WorldTour

Jasinska (20th) leads Movistar Team in long, tough race in the Netherlands, under the rain and in crosswinds, with crashes -not serious- and lots of moves.

European road race champion Marta Bastianelli (TVC) took Sunday’s victory at the 2019 Ronde van Drenthe, second round of the UCI Women’s WorldTour, over 165km around Hoogeveen (NED) including ten sections of muddy, cobbled roads under intermittent rain and strong winds which menaced to destroy the bunch at every instant.

Teruel and Jasinska into the final VAM-berg ascent. (c) Vélofocus / Movistar Team

Able to keep their whole squad together after two of the three climbs to the VAM-berg (main climb in today’s route), the Jorge Sanz-directed Movistar Team fought hard to come back to the front, as the echelons in the lead peloton before the last ascent left only Aude Biannic inside a 40-strong group, in pursuit of solo leader Grace Brown (MTS).

How our Canyons looked post-race. (c) Movistar Team

A big effort from Alba Teruel, Roxane Fournier and Malgorzata Jasinska helped the Frenchwoman and the Polish champion getting to the front before the last two muddy pavé sectors. However, and with about 12km remaining, another round of crosswinds took the Blues out of contention and back to a second peloton, with Jasinska in 20th place and Biannic -who crashed before those sectors- in 24th. Another huge experience, which will continue in the North on Wednesday 20th at the Belgian race Nokere Koerse (UCI 1.1).