Tough day in the Breakaway for Dani at Boels Rental Hills Classic 2015

Dani flew to Amsterdam from Bristol airport on Thursday afternoon for a weekend of UCI road racing – Boels Rental Hills Classic 2015 UCI 1.1 today (Friday 29^th May) and Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik UCI 1.1 on Sunday 29^th.

The Boels Rental Hills Classic 2015 offered a 131km course that ventured through the Dutch hills in and around Limburg. The women were tested over 1,500 metres of elevations gain with 15 bergs and two trips up the Cauberg climb before finishing up the Geulhemmerweg.

As the flag dropped signaling the start of the race, the attacks were in full flow, with Dani and her Wiggle Honda team mates; Elisa Longo Bourghini (ITA), Giorgia Bronzini (ITA) and Anna Sanchis (SPA) ensuring at least one of them was in every split.

 

After 30km of racing, a group of 7 including Dani went clear, which was to be the break of the day. These 7 riders worked well together, riding in the popular ‘chaingang’ formation, which proves to be the most efficient way of riding in a group of 6 or more.

    

Tackling climb after climb, the break of 7 built up a maximum advantage of just under 3 minutes, which was a signal to the peloton that this break may not be seen again unless some serious chasing was done.

Over one of the climbs at half distance, a huge effort was made in the main bunch, dragging a group of 30 riders clear of the rest of the peloton. This group of 30 worked together and kept the pressure on, eventually catching the front break to make a new lead group of 37 riders, which included Dani and Elisa for Wiggle Honda, plus other British rider Lizzie Armitstead.

 

37 is too large a group for it to work together, as there will always be riders wanting to sit in and avoid contributing to the pace making at the front. It was no surprise that this lead group started attacking each other, forcing a number of splits, until a select group of 14 riders went clear coming in to the final 15km, which contained both Wiggle Honda riders.

 

The decisive moment come with 10km to go where 5 riders escaped from the 14, proving to be the race-winning split. Elisa was in there for Wiggle Honda, along with Lizzie Armitstead, whilst Dani was in the trailing group of 9.

 

For Wiggle Honda – this was as good a position as they could have hoped for coming in to 10km to go. Dani’s legs were giving way having been in the break all day, while Elisa was the strongest Wiggle Honda rider left, so it was ideal it was her that made the split.

 

The Cauberg last time was cat and mouse for the front 5, with the race being decided by a 5-up sprint, with Lizzie taking the win, from Emma Johansson in 2^nd and Katarzyna Niewiadoma 3^rd. Dani battled hard, fighting every inch of the way to cross the line in 14th place.

 

A good day out for Dani and the Wiggle Honda team, especially as over in France, teammate Chloe Hoskins won GP de Plumlec!

 

Images Credit to – Bart Hazen @Bartoli84 & Eric Boosten @EricBoosten