Trinidad and Tobagonian rider Teniel Campbell showed her late season form today, making the front group in a wet and wild edition ofย Drentse Acht van Westerveld, before sprinting to a respectable seventh place.
After a furious fast start, the peloton soon split on an exposed crosswind section with the Team BikExchange rider able to jump across and make the front selection. The group of around 15 riders managed to open up a lead of over two-minutes and with many teams represented in the move, the group was able to stay away to the finish line in Dwingeloo.
Coming into the final, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak launched away solo and held on for a solo victory, crossing the line 27seconds ahead of the second place finisher. Campbell tried in the sprint for second but didnโt quite have the legs in the final to make it on to the podium, instead finishing in a respectable seventh place ahead of tomorrowโs final race of the 2021 season, the one-day WorldTour race, Ronde van Drenthe.
Teniel Campbell
โIt was cold, wet and windy. Everything about thoseย threeย elements makes me excited to race. From the gun it was just full gas and the hammer was dropped from the first open section in the cross winds.ย I was position maybe around top-20 when that started happening,ย so I had to bridgeย acrossย 150metresย to connectย .
It hurt a lot and I just started some self talk and saidย โjust keep pedalling , just keep pedalling.โย I connected then continued to hurt until we opened up a gapย of twoย minutes thenย Iย was able to recover.ย
The legs then started feeling good.ย Iย madeย a few mistakes one of the biggest being under fueling and I felt that the most in the final. When Chantal attacked I tried to follow but I eventually blew up and had toย ย wait for the group. That was the winning move so Iโm pretty annoyed that I didnโt have those extra 10 powerful pedal strokes to latch onto her wheel.ย
Iโm proud of my effort but of course I would have liked toย have beenย on the podium. There was stillย twoย more spots left and I was just completely empty and could not contest the podium. Tomorrow is another dayย to try again.โ
2021ย Drentse Acht van Westerveldย results:
- Chantal van den Broek-Blaak 3:21:05
- Charlotte Kool +0:27
- Elenora Gasparrini ST
7. Teniel Campbell (Team BikeExchange) ST