6th April – Ronde van Vlaanderen WE: Oudenaarde – Oudenaarde
Cobbles and climbs awaited Team Picnic PostNL’s Women’s program on Sunday afternoon, with a challenging day out at Ronde van Vlaanderen. From the start it was nervous in the peloton, but the team were always present and well positioned at the front ahead of any potential splits in the wind. Things then settled and a breakaway went clear, building up a large lead.
In the peloton the pace ramped up and the team did a good job of positioning Franziska Koch and Pfeiffer Georgi ahead of the Koppenberg, where the break was caught. There the bunch split with the Team Picnic PostNL duo making the front group ahead of the Hotond, where things split once more. Georgi and Koch had to let go of the wheels at the front of the race but fought all the way to the line over the remaining climbs and cobbles to Oudenaarde.
Koch said: “It was a pretty hard day. Before the start it was nervous because in the beginning of the race there was quite some wind, so we were sharp on that and focused. The team did a really good job, stayed together and we made a plan of some points that we wanted to put it in the gutter. We were all fully committed to try and open up the race early on. In the end, it was just Pfeiffer and I left in the front and I also got dropped so we were unfortunately on the back foot. We gave it our all today, were committed, and that’s sometimes just how it goes in bike racing.”
