20th in the very first Paris-Roubaix Femmes, Lucie Jounier tells us about her day.
“We had an inevitably historic day playing in the very first Paris-Roubaix in the history of our sport. I am a little disappointed from an accounting point of view. We were well placed Gladys and I at the start of the first 1st cobbled section, but she died. Me, I die on the 3rd, I do a large part of it flat and then I am repaired. This puncture stopped me in my progress, the advantage was that Gladys came back on me. There were a lot of crashes in another sector, and I got out on my own in front of all the competitors who were with me without realizing it. I thought instantly that I had shot myself in the foot, but Cecilie Ludwig Uttrup caught up to me. We then reassembled groups, we came back very close to the peloton but it was not working with the girls we were with, we were not organized. I meet up with Lotte Kopecky, and I go out with him to the Tree Sector. But on the next sector I let go, and once again Cecilie Ludwig Uttrup joined me. We came back to Kopecky who had caught up with Aude Biannic, on the penultimate sector, but I was last in the group and the girls in front of me left a hole and I lost contact with her. I then fell back into a group of 3 competitors, the Portuguese Maria Martins was no longer riding, claiming that she was a sprinter, and finally she beat me to gain 19th place. Frankly, this day has been incredible. I was stressed this morning at the start, I was not smart about km 30 and the first cobbled section, because the instructions given to all the teams were to be placed there. There was also slush on the cobblestones, and then entering the concrete velodrome is just great, just like finishing your first Paris-Roubaix in front of so many people, it’s just emotionally crazy ”.