The tough French one-day race with more than 2,300 altimetres became a real elimination race. “I think we still got a nice result given the situation”, said sports director Lieselot Decroix. “Anna and Riejanne Markus, who were at the start as our leaders, both had trouble on the way. Fortunately, thanks to their teammates, they were able to return to the peloton in time, but this cost them a lot of energy. Meanwhile, Julie Van de Velde showed herself in the breakaway. In the last few dozen kilometres the peloton broke into pieces and Riejanne managed to bring Anna to the first group. Given the course of the race, the tenth place was the highest possible result today. Five of the six riders will go directly to Spain for the Ceratizit Challenge by la Vuelta. They can build on this in the coming days.”
