Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling was on the podium once again as two-time world road champion Giorgia Bronzini sprinted to second place in the Ronde van Gelderland. The 29-year-old Italian was just beaten to the line Dutch super sprinter Kirsten Wild (Argos-Shimano) after hard work from the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling team had helped to pull back a two-rider break late on in the 139.6km race.
“The team put Giorgia into the best position possible in that last couple of kilometres,” explained Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling directeur sportif Simon Cope. “The last kilometre had three turns in it, so it was technical.
“Everyone did their job and delivered Giorgia onto Kirsten’s wheel,” he added. “I think she actually got by her, but I think Wild looked at her and went again; which is what Mark Cavendish does to people, so what more can you do.”
The series of short climbs in the first half of the race saw the peloton split into two, with Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Olympic champion Dani King safely in the front group, along with teammates Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier and Bronzini. The gap between the groups was never to widen much though, and gradually the peloton came back together as it approached the closing stages of the course.
“It was like a combination of the New Forest and the Ashdown Forest,” Cope said of the race’s early hilly section. “Some of the climbs were quite vicious really, but it was a typical Dutch race with lefts, rights; it was very technical with lots of road furniture.
“The group split in two, but the front group stopped riding and the back group came back,” Cope explained. “So it was always going to be a sprint, and that’s what we were banking on.”
With 30km to go Shara Gillow (Orica-AIS) escaped alone, and was allowed a lead of a minute and a half before Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling and the other sprinters’ teams began to pull her back. When Gillow’s lead was down to 30 seconds she was joined by Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv/Giant), but both were soon closed down as the race headed for the sprint finish.
“It’s another good result, another podium, and a few more UCI points, so it’s all good,” Cope surmised. “We’re trying to build a team that wants to work for each other, and it seems to be coming together pretty well.”
Result
1. Kirsten Wild (Argos-Shimano)
2. Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda)
3. Chloe Hosking (Hitec Products)
19. Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier
24. Dani King
31. Emily Collins
33. Beatrice Bartelloni
67. Rochelle Gilmore
