UCI World Cup 2007

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Vårgårda, 132km

Race Writeup

The bunch rolled out in slightly overcast conditions, the temperature was a relatively cool 19.5’c.

The 12 laps, round the 11km circuit to complete the 132km course Chantal Beltman (T-Mobile) escaped from the two person break on the final climb to create a lone victory and her first World cup victory.

The attacks started immediately as Nikki Egyed (Raleigh Lifeforce Creation), Trine Schmidt (Team Flexpoint) and Stephanie Pohl (Getränke Hoffmann), created a lead of 1 minute 30 seconds. On the climb for the third time the chasing peloton was split due to a crash involving Andrea Thürig (Team Bigla). The peloton, which is 1’55 behind the leaders had to regroup quickly to avoid loosing more time, Thürig retired from the race.

The break lasted until lap 7 despite a number of attacks from the peloton included a 14 rider break that tried hard to close the gap. The leaders were caught on run in to Vårgårda. A group of 4 riders attacked through the town, including Amber Neben (Team Flexpoint), Priska Doppmann, Karin Thürig (Raleigh Lifeforce) and Naomi Cantele (Team Bigla), they gained 20 seconds very quickly. At the foot of the climb, Judith Arndt (T-Mobile) launched a chase which lasted the length of the climb, but was good enough to catch the 4 breakaways. Arndt took with her 10 others, so that created a group of 15.

On the back of the circuit, Karin Thürig (Raleigh Lifeforce) and Chantal Beltman (T-Mobile) attacked and quickly gained 20 seconds. The two leaders created a gap of 1 minute 15 seconds, but Thürig seemed in difficulty on the climb. Beltman waited and they worked together over the climb, whilst T-Mobile formed a controlling tactic at the front of the bunch. By the summit, the advantage was 2’25.

The leaders maintained their advantage, albeit slightly reduced to 2 minutes 5 seconds. On the climb, Ljungskog attacked and Wood followed. A touch of wheels with another rider resulted in the Australian crashing, unable to resume racing. On the descent of the climb, the bunch was split and a group managed to close the gap a little to leading two riders.

With 3 laps to go, the advantage was steady at 2 minutes 20 seconds. On the climb, Ljungskog attacked again to try to get away, but despite stringing the bunch out along the length of the climb, she could not make any airspace.

The leaders maintained their speed and were able to open the gap to 3 minutes 9 seconds. Two riders attacked, Andrea Graus (Équipe Nürnberger) and Karin Guderzo (AA Drink), managing to get away from the bunch for a short time only, they were brought back to group  and a small peloton of 20-25 riders formed with the current World Cup lead and second place Cooke and Vos both in the chasing group.

On the final time up the climb, Beltman dropped Thürig and gained a 20 second advantage. She sustained a high pace over the final 8km and enjoyed a long celebration up the finishing straight.

Thürig took second and in the sprint for third Noemi Cantele (Team Bigla) beat the bunch.