Megan Jastrab sprints to 4th in Angers after chaotic finale

After two punchy days over the Breton climbs, a fast finish into Angers was expected on Monday afternoon. Team Picnic PostNL set-out with the plan of covering any large breaks in the opening part of the day, hunting for opportunities in the final, and then set-up the sprint with Rachele Barbieri if it came down to that.

From the start there were a few attacks which the team followed, but eventually a four rider group went clear. After that point the race settled into a rhythm with those ahead building up their advantage before being slowly reeled in by the peloton. The team had pin-pointed a part on the course with roughly 20 kilometres to go where they would try to shake things up, but the pace was too high at that point to try anything. Regrouping, they turned their full focus to setting up a sprint in the finale with Barbieri. However, there unfortunately was a large crash in the peloton which saw the majority of the team held up – although thankfully none of them went down.

Megan Jastrab made it through the chaos, an fought valiantly in the finale as the sprint was set-up. Battling to get onto a good wheel for the final kicker to the line, Jastrab gave everything she had to take a strong fourth place in Angers.

Speaking after the stage Jastrab explained: “We wanted to sprint with Rachele as our finisher today but also be sharp on any bigger moves at the start. I was actually in a group of ten or 11 but that came back and then a group of four went clear, and they got quite a big gap. It was basically one team that chased for a long time before some others stepped in and the pace was really high going into the final. We looked to set-up Rachele but unfortunately there was a big crash and I found myself in the front group. I tried to finish it off but I messed up a bit battling for a wheel that I should have maybe stayed behind and saved that bit more energy for the sprint. You live and learn and I suppose you can’t be disappointed with a fourth place in the Tour de France, but you always compare yourself to the others and what you could have done for third, and then for second and so on. We have a strong team for courses like this so I think we can take some confidence into tomorrow where we’ll look to go for it again with Rachele in the final.” 

Team Picnic PostNL coach Albert Timmer added: “There was quite a bit of attacking in the beginning but then the group of four went away. We looked for some opportunities in the final but the speed was simply way too high, so the focus was on Rachele. There was a big crash in the last three an a half kilometres, and luckily we managed to stay upright, so that was good. Megan managed to get through into the first group and did a really good sprint to fourth place. In general I think it was a solid day. The things that we can do, we have done pretty well, throughout the whole Tour so far actually, so I think that gives us some confidence for the coming days.”