{"id":31197,"date":"2022-07-31T13:19:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T13:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/thats-not-normal-van-vleuten-tears-up-the-gc-on-the-tours-first-mountain-stage\/"},"modified":"2022-07-31T13:19:54","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T13:19:54","slug":"thats-not-normal-van-vleuten-tears-up-the-gc-on-the-tours-first-mountain-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/thats-not-normal-van-vleuten-tears-up-the-gc-on-the-tours-first-mountain-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"‘That’s not normal’: Van Vleuten tears up the GC on the Tour’s first mountain stage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The GC race had barely begun before stage 7. Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) was sitting in yellow on borrowed time before the mountains with the GC favorites dotted around the top 10. Just 2:34 separated Vos in first and Elise Chabbey (Canyon -SRAM) in 10th. <\/p>\n

After Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) had every way in the Vosges Mountains, however, the GC was torn to pieces. <\/p>\n

The 39-year-old’s 60 km-long assault on the GC race sees her leading by 3:14 ahead of her nearest rival, Demi Vollering (SD Worx0, who valiantly stuck with her compatriot until she could no longer match her pace on the climbs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s not normal,\u201d Vollering said of Van Vleuten’s performance. \u201cI said to her it’s not normal what you did. She said, I have so much more training experience and experience overall. She said to me that it will come to me, so let’s hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vollering stayed away on her own ahead of a chasing group of favorites to finish 5:16 ahead of Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Suez Futuroscope) who took third place on the stage. Vollering’s ride puts her at a 1:19 advantage over Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) who started the day in second place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was brutal to be honest,\u201d said Niewiadoma after the stage. \u201cThere was seriously no time to recover, no time to do anything, because we started with a lot of attacks from different teams. So the pace was quite high. And then of course, we get the first climb. And it was still just crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me personally, I knew that after the second climb, there was a long descent on the big road and the part in the valley was something that you would definitely benefit from when having riders around too. So when I saw [Elisa] Longo Borghini going on her own I knew that it would be a difficult day for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then on the last climb I just gave my best because I knew that the GC spot or the top three is available for me, especially the third place so basically I rode for that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Longo Borghini’s solo efforts meant that she struggled on the final climb after eventually being caught by the group containing Niewiadoma, Juliette Labous (DSM), Uttrup Ludwig, Evita Muzic (FDJ Suez Futuroscope), Ur\u0161ka \u017digart (BikeExchange-Jayco), and Silvia Persico (Valcar Travel & Service). The Italian eventually crossed the line 7:23 behind Van Vleuten and 2:07 behind Uttrup Ludwig putting her in seven on GC at 6:15.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m completely exhausted,\u201d Longo Borghini said after the stage. \u201cI’ve been alone for a long time. For me, what really killed me was the valley. I gave my best and that’s it. In the end if you give your best it’s all you can do, and I really did it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all knew that she [Van Vleuten] was the strongest and I didn’t believe for one second that she was not good.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me I was rockclimbing the last climb, but what can I say? It’s bike racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uttrup Ludwig’s third place on the stage has moved the Danish rider up to fifth overall at 5:59. Despite climbing up the GC the 26-year-old seemed uncharacteristically deflated after the stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just gave it my all,\u201d she said. \u201cI guess then you should be satisfied. I didn’t have much more to give. They were just stronger today,\u201d she said. \u201cI did everything that I could, and I think the rest also. she [Van Vleuten] was just stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labous, who finished fourth on the stage after a three-up sprint with Niewiadoma and Uttrup Ludwig has climbed to fourth overall at 5:22 while Muzic, who was in the same group going into the final climb, has entered the top 10 and sits in eighth with a deficit of 10:13 on Van Vleuten. <\/p>\n

Italian multidisciplinary rider Silvia Persico beat Longo Borghini in a sprint over the line to come sixth on the stage but still lost time to move into sixth overall at 6:11 back. An in-the-wars Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) managed to pull up after an unfortunate few stages of crashing to ride to 13th on the stage which propelled her back into the top 10. She sits in ninth place overall, 12:06 behind Van Vleuten. <\/p>\n

One of the day’s big GC losers was Vollering’s teammate, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio. Usually one of the peloton’s strongest climbers, the South African could only manage 18th on the stage, 13:43: behind Van Vleuten, dropping to 12th overall. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve had a bit of a runny nose and stuff but I thought it was just allergies, but my whole body was just aching today,\u201d Moolman Pasio said. \u201cI don’t know, empty today. It’s crazy how you can go from feeling so good to feeling so shit just overnight. But yeah, a really good performance from Demi so we can be happy with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

One of the revelations of the day was \u017digart who, after a relatively quiet race, spent the day in a group of the peloton’s best climbers. The 25-year-old Slovenian finished the stage in eighth place but is over 30 minutes in arrears on GC. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was full gas from the start,\u201d she said. \u201cAlready when the big break went. Actually when the peloton split. And then full gas into the full climb. Everybody knew that they had to make a difference as soon as possible and then it’s everybody on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn’t there \u2013 I didn’t see it [Van Vleuten\u2019s move]. I was a little bit stuck and out of position. I had to climb my way back to the group of favourites. We were lucky to have Kristen [Faulkner] back but I couldn’t push, I couldn’t work in the group. Of course I was a little sad. I felt a bit stupid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt good [on the day]. I showed the world that I have the climbing legs. Hopefully in the future I can be further up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GC podium seems all but secured with one stage to go, however in the words of Niewiadoma: \u201cyou never know what can happen. Bike racing is unpredictable.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GC race had barely begun before stage 7. Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) was sitting in yellow on borrowed time before the mountains with the GC favorites dotted around the top 10. Just 2:34 separated Vos in first and Elise Chabbey (Canyon -SRAM) in 10th. After Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) had every way in the Vosges …<\/p>\n

‘That’s not normal’: Van Vleuten tears up the GC on the Tour’s first mountain stage<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31394,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/annemiek-van-vleuten-takes-final-stage-by-30-seconds-to-win-womens-tour-de-france\/","url_meta":{"origin":31197,"position":0},"title":"Annemiek van Vleuten takes final stage by 30 seconds to win women’s Tour de France","date":"July 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PLANCHE DES BELLES FILLES, France -- Veteran rider Annemiek van Vleuten won the women's Tour de France for the first time on Sunday after clinching the eighth and final stage in style.Van Vleuten, 39, won the stage by 30 seconds over Dutch countrywoman Demi Vollering, who also finished the race\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31639,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/dutch-cyclist-annemiek-van-vleuten-wins-the-2022-tour-de-france-femmes\/","url_meta":{"origin":31197,"position":1},"title":"Dutch cyclist Annemiek Van Vleuten wins the 2022 Tour de France Femmes","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The 39-year-old Movistar Team rider and Tour favorite bested compatriot Demi Vollering by 3 minutes and 48 seconds in the eight-stage bike race. 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