Nancy van der Burg and Karlijn Swinkels have finished second and third respectively at the Dutch Championships. After an early breakaway the ladies of Team Jumbo-Visma managed to hold on to the leading group, but had to acknowledge their superiority to Amy Pieters in the last two laps. Marianne Vos finished in eighth place.
Team Jumbo-Visma Women dictated the tempo from the start on the VAM-circuit that was identical to last year’s course of the Dutch championships. The riders covered the 7.3 kilometre course seventeen times. In the seventh lap, a front group of twenty riders emerged which included Marianne Vos, Jip van den Bos, Karlijn Swinkels and Nancy van der Burg. With 45 kilometres to go, Swinkels and Van der Burg managed to escape in a group of five. While the peloton was unable to close the gap, overall winner Pieters went on the attack 15 kilometres from the finish. Swinkels and Van der Burg were unable to follow but managed to maintain their advantage over the peloton in a group of three. In the final climb on the VAM mountain both Jumbo-Visma riders managed to sprint to a medal.
“THE ONLY GOAL OF THE TEAM TODAY WAS TO REACH THE PODIUM.”
Nancy van der Berg
Van der Burg looked back on a great result: “Just like last year it was a gruelling race. In the end that makes the race fair. The only goal of the team today was to reach the podium. I felt really good and eventually Karlijn and I could go in the breakaway. Unfortunately we couldn’t parry Amy’s attack but it’s super that we managed to get two podium places. I am very proud of the team and how we rode as a team today. We showed ourselves from the start, as we had planned. When you succeed in that, it gives you so much extra motivation. It’s nice that we were able to finish like this.”
“I really didn’t expect this”, teammate Swinkels admitted. “Earlier this week I crashed during the time trial and now I finish third. Today I was able to join the leading group and at one point it became clear that we were going to fight for second and third place with three riders. A few times I tried to get away, but in the end it was just too much. It’s nice that the two of us were able to finish it off.”