Nederland Bloeit rider takes over World Cup lead from teammate Marianne Vos with one race to go
Annemiek van Vleuten continued Nederland Bloeit’s almost total domination of the 2011 World Cup with victory in the Open de Suede Vårgårda. The Dutchwoman, who won the Ronde van Vlaanderen back in April, was part of a seven-rider group that escaped the peloton with two and a half of the twelve 11km laps remaining. As the bunch bore down on the fugitives in the closing kilometres, van Vleuten attacked and managed to hold it off to take her second World Cup race of the season.
Ellen van Dijk (HTC-Highroad) outsprinted Nicole Cooke (MCipollini-Giambenini) to take second place, as all that remained of the seven breakaway riders, with van Dijk’s teammate Ina Teutenberg leading the peloton over the line just behind them.
The early laps featured more crashes than attacks, and Jessica Kihlbom (Alriksson Go:Green) was the first rider to get a real gap over the peloton, midway through lap three. She was joined by Madeleine Sandig (Germany) but the two of them were caught as the peloton accelerated on the next lap.
There then number of attacks from riders including Emma Pooley (Garmin-Cervélo), Petra Dijkman (Dolmans Landscaping) and former Swedish champion Emilia Fahlin, German champion Judith Arndt and Charlotte Becker (all HTC-Highroad). Unfortunately the course was not selective enough though and nobody was able to get a decisive gap and the only riders that were successfully leaving the peloton were those dropping off the back.
As the peloton hit the bottom of the Hägrungabacken climb in the middle of lap ten though, van Vleuten, van Dijk and Cooke escaped with Iris Slappendel (Garmin-Cervélo), Irene van den Broek (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), Oxana Kozonchuk (Russian National Team) and Regina Bruins (Netherlands National Team); the seven riders were 37 seconds as they crossed the line with two laps to go.
Hitec Products-UCK team of Swedish champion Emma Johansson had missed the move, as had the Dolmans Landscaping team of Dutch sprinter Martine Bras. Both teams put riders on the front to prevent the septet’s lead from growing too much.
Van Dijk and van den Broek were in the group on behalf of sprinters Teutenberg and Kirsten Wild, so neither was doing any work to help the group stay away. With the other five riding hard though, the lead was continuing to open; on the penultimate lap it stretched out to 46 seconds and, despite dropping to just 15 seconds as the leaders hit the climb, as they took the bell with one lap to go it was back up to 40 seconds.
On the final lap the peloton began to close the gap once more and, as the seven riders hit the climb for the last time, it was down to just 25 seconds. This was where Kozonchuk found the leaders’ pace too tough and was dropped from the group.
Just as Johansson attacked from the peloton behind, van Vleuten made her move at the front; she was chased down by van Dijk with the rest joining soon afterwards, but the increase in pace helped to hold off the peloton that little bit longer. With 2km to go the lead was still 15 seconds.
Van Vleuten attacked once again into the finish and managed to gap the others to finish alone, lifting just one hand from the bars as she crossed the line. Van Dijk just edged out Cooke in the battle for second, but third place is the best result in a World Cup race for the former World champion since second place in the 2007 GP Plouay gave her the lead in the overall series.
The rest of the group was not so lucky though, and was swamped in the finishing straight; Teutenberg took fourth place, although van den Broek managed to hold on to take fifth, just ahead of teammate Wild, with Slappendel taking seventh.
With series leader Marianne Vos, van Veluten’s Nederland Bloeit teammate, finishing seventeenth, in the middle of the peloton, she scores just four points. Van Vleuten began the day just 64 points behind Vos and so, with 75 points for the win, takes back the jersey that she held in the spring with just the Plouay round remaining.
With the two Nederland Bloeit riders taking five out of the eight rounds so far, it will come down to a straight contest between the two of them in Brittany at the end of August.
Result Open de Suede Vårgårda
1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Nederland Bloeit
2. Eleonora van Dijk (Ned) HTC-HighRoad
3. Nicole Cooke (GBr) MCipollini-Giambenini
4. Ina Teutenberg (Ger) HTC-Highroad
5. Irene Van Den Broek (Ned) AA Drink-Leontien.nl
6. Kirsten Wild (Ned) AA Drink-Leontien.nl
7. Iris Slappendal (Ned) Garmin-Cervélo
8. Martine Bras (Ned) Dolmans Landscaping Team
9. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Highroad
10. Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products-UCK
World Cup standings after eight rounds
1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Nederland Bloeit 287pts
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) Nederland Bloeit 280
3. Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products-UCK 212
4. Ina Teutenberg (Ger) HTC-Highroad 163
5. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Highroad 143