Racing In France

Region Pays de La Loire Feminine, Wednesday 9th April

A bright and sunny day with temperatures pushing into the 20's greeted the team as they arrived at the start of the Region Pays de La Loire Feminine. A single day's race starting in Cugand and finishing, via a loop south, in Beaupreau, France.
The 'Tour of the Loir Femme', in it’s second year, borrows much from it's parallel men's race with excellent organisation, logistics and a strong line up of French domestic teams and international Continental squads.

The peloton rolled out for a lengthy neutralised zone before the racing got under way on the 159km route containing 3 sprint and 4 QoM points. With the climbs all rated category 3 the money was on a large bunch arriving into the finishing circuit around Beaupreau, although a headwind along the open, rural roads threatened to intervene.

Indeed, as the race summited the first climb after 50km a large group remained together at the front. A crash within the peloton saw Lucy Harris brought down and thankfully return quickly to her bike.

The second climb, as the race entered the finishing circuit through the narrowing City streets, saw a lone breakaway, although as the climb dragged all the way to finish line, almost another kilometer beyond the ‘false summit’, the chasing group began to splinter.

Alex was able to stay in touch with the leading group as they approached the long climb for the final time but attacks at the front by the VolkerWessels team resulted in them scoring a one two, with Anneke Dijkstra sprinting to a 10 second advantage over her teammate Anne Knijnenburg at the finish line.

A strong overall performance by Alex resulted in 30th place, just 24 seconds behind the winner with Grace 45th at 2:07, Lucy Harris 47th at 2:18, Alice 67th and Annabel 71st at 3:13, Jo 89th at 6:24

Words and Images by Adam Winfield, Through the Lens unless stated