Campbell makes the front group before sprinting to 7th in Drentse Acht van Westerveld

Trinidad and Tobagonian rider Teniel Campbell showed her late season form today, making the front group in a wet and wild edition of 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 didn’t quite have the legs in the final to make it on to the podium, instead finishing in a respectable seventh place ahead of tomorrow’s final race of the 2021 season, the one-day WorldTour race, Ronde van Drenthe.

Teniel Campbell

“It was cold, wet and windy. Everything about those three 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. I was position maybe around top-20 when that started happening, so I had to bridge across 150metres to connect .

It hurt a lot and I just started some self talk and said ‘just keep pedalling , just keep pedalling.’ I connected then continued to hurt until we opened up a gap of two minutes then I was able to recover.

The legs then started feeling good. I made 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 to wait for the group. That was the winning move so I’m pretty annoyed that I didn’t have those extra 10 powerful pedal strokes to latch onto her wheel.

I’m proud of my effort but of course I would have liked to have been on the podium. There was still two more spots left and I was just completely empty and could not contest the podium. Tomorrow is another day to try again.”

2021 Drentse Acht van Westerveld results: