Van Vleuten overcomes off-course detour to win in Boels Ladies Tour

Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) held off the peloton on Wednesday to win stage 1 of the Boels Ladies Tour solo, but this ended up being harder than first thought. A missing race marshal in a crucial descent and a split-second distrust in her own memory of the correct course combined to lead van Vleuten off the race course. This detour cost her about 30 seconds and put the stage in contention again, but the world time trial champion persevered to take a second consecutive stage win.

Van Vleuten was one of the riders who attacked on the final climb of the Oude Holleweg, 20km from the finish. At the top of the climb, a trio also including Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5) opened up a gap, and van Vleuten then went solo when van der Breggen would not cooperate.

"I think we had a good group with Anna van der Breggen, Elisa Longo Borghini and myself. But Anna did not want to ride with us, I do not know why. So I started to attack, then Amanda Spratt came up from behind and surprised Anna. Now she had to chase, and then I took over with a good attack. Then Anna was exposed, with only Amanda in her wheel, so this victory is also a big team effort."

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On her way to the finish in Nijmegen, one last difficulty lay ahead for van Vleuten. Unlike on the seven laps of the 15.5-kilometre circuit, the Oude Holleweg climb was left out this time, but she still had to ascend the Van Randwijckweg and then descend the Nieuwe Holleweg before turning right and heading towards Nijmegen instead of going left and up the Oude Holleweg. And this descent was where things went wrong.

"There was no motorbike in front to guide me, nor was there a marshal pointing where to go. I had done reconnaissance of the course, so I knew the route, but I thought I saw a big sign with a Boels logo and an arrow straight ahead. Apparently, the company is doing roadworks on that stretch of road."

Boels is the main sponsor of the Boels Ladies Tour (and the Boels Dolmans Cycling Team), but the company is also well-known around Northern Europe for renting out machines and equipment for construction works, events, and other occasions.

— Tim de Vries (@TimFietst) August 29, 2018

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