____________________________________________________________________

Energiewacht Tour 2011

WCN quicklink >> Stage 1      Stage 1 Full     Stage 2     Stage 2 Full    Stage 3    Stage 3 Full     Stage 4    Stage 4 Full

Stage 1 -Vos sprints to victory on stage 1

Sellingen-Gemeente Vlagtwedde- Westerwolde Omloop, 108.8km

Race Writeup

Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) secured another win for her team. A bunch sprint saw Vos move to the front early, winning the sprint ahead of Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (HTC Highroad) and Kirsten Wild (AA Drink-Leontien.nl)

This is the first time the region of Groingen has hosted a four day stage race. In 2010, the region hosted the Omloop door Middag Humsterland  one day race. This set the seed for this tour. 

In a beautiful part of the north of the Netherlands, the first Energiewacht Tour, started in cold and overcast conditions. In the peloton were, 164 riders representing 28 teams from around the world. The first stage course was relatively flat, as you would expect from Holland. It completed two laps of the Sellingen area, 46.5km before completing two smaller laps of 7.2km through the town. It included sprint points the four times the riders passed the start/finish line. 

The bunch had to navigate narrow roads and conditions were windy early on, causing a couple of minor incidents. The first included a number of rides, two of the Nederland Bloeit team Vos and Annemiek van Vleuten and HTC Highroad's Ellen van Dijk were amongst them. All riders were forced to chase back. Fortunately the pace was steady and all reconnected with the main peloton. Teutenberg suffered a front puncture and had to work hard to get back to the group.

After 50km the string had started to stretch as the pace was increased at the front of the bunch by Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (HTC Highroad).  A group of 24 riders formed that included the top sprinters in the world. Teutenberg was there along side, 2010 World Road Champion Giorgia Bronzini (Colavita Forno D'Asolo), Shelly Olds (Diadora-Pasta Zara), Vos, Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto Honda), Martine Bras (Dolmans Landscaping), Emma Johansson (Hitec Products-UCK) and Kirsten Wild (AA Drint-Leontien.nl). The group got a maximum lead of 1 minute 15 seconds before the chase came from the main peloton.

When the chase to the leaders finally made traction at 25km to go. It was led by Garmin-Cervelo and Tibco who both missed the break. It took them 5km to bring the gap down to 30 seconds as the leaders passed the two laps to go sign with 14.4km to go.

Sarah Duester (Nederland Bloeit) tried to attack but Emma Johansson (Hitec) chased her back. The lead group lost traction. With 11km to go a leading bunch of 61 riders formed. 

With 700m to go the sprint trains started to form. Navigating the technical final corners some riders lost touch and had to chase hard to get back for the final 300m dash. 

This was the first big sprint of the season and a few nervous riders were manoeuvred by the more experienced sprinters. Vos opened up at 50m to go and was the clear winner ahead of Teutenberg and Wild.

In the sprint competition Martine Bras leads. The young rider competition is led by Anne Arnouts (Dura Vermeer Cyclingteam). Vos hold the green points and overall leaders jerseys. The most active jersey was awared to Megan Guarnier (Tibco).

Back to Top

Post Race Comments

Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) secured another win to continue her early season success. “I am happy, to win the sprint and the stage. To end the work of my team like that is great. They worked in the last few kilometres pretty hard. They did the perfect lead out for me.” said Vos.

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (HTC Highroad) did not really enjoy the first big bunch sprint of the season. “I got second but that wasn’t bad considering where I came from. I was 10th around the corner back there. I positioned myself pretty bad and someone took the corner wrong. We had to chase back 50m on the finish straight. Second was probably the maximum of could get out of the race,” said Teutenberg.

Kirsten Wild (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) didn't really enjoy the first sprint. "It was tough. I was cut up on the corner and had to work hard to get to the line. I thought I was close for second but then Ina came past me," said Wild about coming third.

Martine Bras (Diadora Pasta Zara) reflected on stage 1 and leading the sprint jersey competition, “The wind was not as hard as we expected. It took a long time before the group really split up. That was the hard part of the race,” said Bras.

“I felt really good. I did not really suffer in the breakaway. I was confident for the sprint but I almost crashed in the last corner. My sprint wasn’t so good. I am happ with the result. I was alone in the first group and that is always really hard,” added Bras

Copyright WomensCycling.net 2004 - 2012^©