Niamh Fisher-Black grabbed the silver and the bronze slice went to Mavi Garcia.
In recent days it was mainly about last year’s fiasco when the Netherlands was not driving as a team, but as individual individuals. As a result, the chances of a world title were killed. National coach Laurens ten Dam emphasized prior to the competition that the noses are in the same direction this year.
Are noses of ‘rivals’ fulling and Van der Breggen in the same direction in hunting world title? ‘You don’t do that if you can’t find it together’
And so the expectations were high. With Demi Volling and Anna van der Breggen, among others, the Orange had the strongest team in width. In 2022, the Netherlands won the world title on the road for the last time. Annemiek van Vleuten then welcomed the finish.
Heavy trail
The course was also the subject of conversation in recent days. With 164.8 kilometers, heat and many altimeters, it promised to be an exhaustion stroke. That soon became apparent on Saturday afternoon. Renters had to release already at the first heavy climb.
With 73 kilometers ahead, Shirin van Anrooij decided to make the crossing to two front runners. Soon the two could not follow the pace of the Dutch and had a lead of about 20 seconds on the thinned platoon. Yet she was quickly arrested again.
Demi Volling and Van der Breggen cannot go along
But from that moment the game was on the car. With one round to go, it was strikingly Riejanne Markus who was in the leading group on behalf of the Netherlands. Together with Mavi Garcia, Niamh Fisher-Black, Antonia Niedermaier and Magdeleine Vallieres, she received more than a minute on the peloton. Was there a stunt in the making? No, in the end she couldn’t handle Valliere’s violence.
But then the big names? For Marlen Reusser, the lead of the six was the signal to intervene. The Swiss crowned himself last week as a world champion time trials and so, among other things, Volling was warned. But in the first instance, the Dutch could not go with the steam Reusser.
Moments later she joined under Tour winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. But they came too late and also went to look at each other. Fulling eventually finished seventh.
Van der Breggen had already dropped out and played no significant role in the final. And so it became a disappointing game for Orange again.