When Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) made her unsuccessful cost for total glory on the Tour de France Femmes up the Col du Glandon, it wasn’t yellow jersey clad Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) that was ready to answer her pivotal assault, or any of the opposite pre-race GC favourites, however Pauliena Rooijakkers.
Rooijakkers snapped onto her compatriot’s wheel 2.4km from the crest of the hors categorie climb, and held onto it for practically the entire remaining 60km, taking an unimaginable second place up Alpe d’Huez behind Vollering that moved her into third total and accomplished a ‘dream’ week for Fenix-Deceuninck.
The outcome could have been a shock for a lot of, together with Rooijakkers, however sports activities director Michel Cornelisse at all times stored the religion.
“These climbs [Col du Glandon and Alpe d’Huez] are becoming Pauliena very properly, she confirmed already on the Giro, on the Blockhaus twice, that these climbs are superb for her,” the sports activities director instructed Cyclingnews after the penultimate stage to Le Grand-Bornand.
The 31-year-old Dutch rider headed into the ultimate stage in seventh total, nevertheless, she wasn’t anticipated to land herself on the general podium, along with her earlier greatest GC outcomes coming ultimately month’s Giro d’Italia Girls with fourth and the 2022 Itzulia Girls, the place she was second to Vollering.
However with the hyper-aggressive Belgian staff exhibiting their blue jerseys prominently within the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, as they did final yr, and Rooijakkers was spurred on to the climbing efficiency of her life.
“We had a giant purpose of the highest 5, so to be on the rostrum we might be actually blissful as a staff that we achieved that,” stated Rooijakkers after the ultimate stage.
She added third place total to a Puck Pieterse stage win and the 22-year-old’s victory in one of the best younger rider’s classification.
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“It was superb, when you instructed us this earlier than the Tour de France, it’s a well known story however third within the total, profitable a stage, profitable the white jersey and being so robust within the race, we’d not consider it. It’s a dream for us,” Cornelisse instructed Cyclingnews on the staff bus, referring to the gorgeous debut of Pieterse too.
Puck Pieterse joined her teammate Rooijakkers on the ultimate podium as she claimed the white jersey of the youth classification (Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
Rooijakkers performed the tactical battle all through the ultimate having stayed with Vollering over Glandon, throughout the valley and up virtually the entire 13.8km Alpe d’Huez climb. Nonetheless, an all-out descent additionally noticed the Fenix-Deceuninck rider placed on the restrict within the valley, unable and unauthorised to assist Vollering as a lot as she may have.
“No, from the automotive they stated to sit down in her wheel however I used to be additionally struggling in her wheel. I attempted to assault however there was not loads in my legs anymore so I used to be blissful to stay on,” stated Rooijakkers who made a late transfer for glory after they reached the ski resort.
“That’s why I used to be sitting in her wheel loads as a result of I didn’t wish to blow myself up a bit and I wished to play the sport. She was preventing actually for yellow and I used to be simply holding on, in any other case, I’d perhaps park myself on Alpe d’Huez and I didn’t wish to let that occur.”
In her emotional post-race convention, Vollering revealed the wrestle she had when Rooijakkers stopped serving to her because of staff orders. However Fenix-Deceuninck additionally stated that Vollering’s downhill push off of Glandon didn’t play into her favour.
“The issue was that Demi Vollering went full fuel within the downhill and he or she killed Pauliena and likewise the woman from Arkea [Cavallard],” stated Cornelisse.
“If she goes a little bit bit slower then we may have gone with three within the valley and labored collectively. Then I may have stated ‘OK assist her’ but when she’s dropped, then we now have nothing, so it was perhaps a little bit mistake from Demi that she went full fuel and we had no different alternative however to comply with as a result of if we get dropped then we aren’t on the rostrum.”
Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix Deceuninck) on the general Tour de France Femmes podium in third alongside Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) in yellow and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) in second (Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
Cornelisse had excessive reward for staff boss Phillip Roodhooft for his half in making certain the boys’s Alpecin-Deceuninck and Fenix-Deceuninck groups have turned extra equal. A two-week altitude camp within the Alps laid the foundations for the squad’s gorgeous week of performances.
“If you happen to see this staff, coming from two years in the past, that man with the blue shirt is the massive boss,” Cornelisse stated as he identified Roodhooft by the bus.
“He believes within the staff, he invests loads within the staff, as a result of we spent 14 days in La Plagne for the coaching camp and that’s not low cost however the massive boss believes in it and we’re very grateful for that.”
“This staff is actually skilled, even doing the altitude camp along with the meals and all of the little issues we work on,” concurred Rooijakkers who joined from Canyon-SRAM after 2023. “There’s no separation with the boys’s and the ladies’s groups, they’re each equal.
“So we take the good things from them and so they additionally take the good things from us and with the coaches, every part, it’s all equal and I believe that makes a extremely massive distinction and likewise the assumption from this staff helps loads.”
Yara Kastelijn lit the fireplace for Fenix-Deceuninck on the Tour final yr with a magic solo win into Rodez. This season, that flame is just burning brighter by means of younger trailblazer Pieterse – who received into Liège on stage 4 and took eleventh total – and Rooijakkers, the shock podium package deal who has discovered her greatest legs into her 30s.
Fenix-Deceuninck might be again with ambition once more in 2025, and Cornelisse believes his two stars from this yr may play out the identical function for a while.
“You see how blissful the women are and also you see they’re solely getting higher and higher as a result of we now have Pauliena and Puck, so for subsequent yr we come again and we attempt for extra.”
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