There is a small ice bath after the finish at the SD Worx bus. The head of the Hungarian Blanka Vas is just above the edge. Anna van der Breggen is on her knees next to it and does not dare to immerse her upper body. She laughs: “This is too cold for my body, can I get out of it?”
The atmosphere with the Dutch team is great. The second sprint stage from the Tour also goes to Lorena Wiebes. In the winding, rising streets of Poitiers, she threatens to get shot for a moment, but at 300 meters from the finish she still shoots at top speed around the American Chloé Dygert.
“Insane,” Van der Breggen shouts after she has come to a halt next to Wiebes. She has returned to the head of the peloton three times in the last kilometers to keep her teammate from the front. Team leader Danny Stam is impressed: “We had planned that Anna would go from the rising road, but I did not expect that it would be so long.”
‘Fun Factor’
Not long ago it was not intended that SD Worx would ride this tour for Wiebes day successes. The team would put everything into service to ride the Belgian leader and world champion Lotte Kopecky towards the yellow jersey, and the recalling early refugees in sprint stages did not fit. But Kopecky has been struggling all season with a back injury.
After she left the Giro Delle Donne earlier this month, SD Worx threw the plans. From now on the team went into the Tour for day success. Not that all classification opportunities were already crossed in advance, towards the closing weekend in the Alps was the hope that Kopecky and Van der Breggen would be briefly in the rankings.
This went wrong with the Belgian on day one. At the steep arrival in the Plumelec finish place she lost a minute on other favorites. Disappointed and without changing a word with the press, she left for her hotel. A day later she told with a vibrating lower lip that her riding had been bumping through her head at night. “The fun factor Is very important to me, and it is a bit absent. I have had two or three very nice seasons, and then to ride around in the rainbow jersey this season is very moderate. ”
In the sprint stages, Kopecky as a luxury servant recovered the dirty work for Wiebes. She stopped her shirt full of water bottles and played a role in the sprint train towards the finish. “We know she’s having a hard time,” Wiebes said after her first stage victory. “We try to have as much fun as possible, I really hope she gets her pleasure back. Without fun you will not get the results either.”
Convulsive
In contrast to Kopecky, Van der Breggen is still close to other toppers in the rankings. The 33-year-old rider returned this year from her cycling pension with the team where she was in the car as a team leader for the past three years. Immediately she showed that she could go with the world top. Already a few favorites (Marlen Reusser, Elisa Longo Borghini) are sick home and Tourfavorite Demi Volling went hard against the asphalt on Monday, her chances are growing in yellow on the end podium on Sunday. “But let’s be honest, we haven’t had a long mountain yet. Tomorrow will be a lot heavier.”
I think the shock is a bit out now
Waiting earlier in the afternoon. While her teammates at FDJ-SUEZ came out of the bus one by one in the starting place Saumur to cycle hot, the bike with the ’11’ sign was waiting for the Dutch. In the morning the team had brought out that the doctor had excluded a concussion and she would start. The fall had delivered her the necessary bruises.
“Bravo,” it sounded from the fans when fulling finally came through the bus curtain. Scramping, she hit her leg over her saddle, her head on the ground. Occasionally a painful appetite appeared on her face, she seemed to shake no to the team doctor. After a few minutes she got off again. Her team had to go to the stage for the team presentation.
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After the ride, follow -up is a lot happier voted. “I am very relieved,” she says. “When I was on the Tacx this morning [fietstrainer] Sit down, I had problems with my neck and I could hardly hold my head up. It went well on the bike. Fortunately I didn’t feel my knees and my back today. ” She is also happy to have survived the hectic final of Tuesday: “I think the shock is a bit out now.”
At Van der Breggen, the relief is just as good after the stage, but for a completely different reason. The mandatory ten minutes in the ice bath for optimum recovery had lasted endlessly. “No, this is not my favorite part of the day. At the end, you are suffering pain in the final, and then also that” laughter behind her. The next rider puts her toe in the cold bath water.