Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Giorgia Bronzini took an incredible fifth straight victory in the Route de France on stage five, between Saint-Fargeau and Pougues-les-Eaux, despite going on a solo breakaway midway through. The former two-time World champion went on the attack on behalf of teammate Linda Villumsen, and became virtual leader herself for several kilometres, but still had the power to win the bunch sprint over a peloton reduced by pressure from Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling.
Despite being put under pressure by a late attack from Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Villumsen, race leader Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) took second place behind Bronzini, with Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) third.
“It’s something amazing for me,” said Bronzini. “Some people say that I am old now that I am 30, but maybe I’m now good at using my legs with my head. It was a little bit harder than the other days today, because I worked, and I was in the break.
“Today we started with the tactics to help Linda, to try to take the jersey,” Bronzini explained, “and in the middle of the race, with about 40km to go, we started to attack. When it was my time to attack they let me go!
“I was alone on the attack for 10 or 15km, and the gap was around a maximum of 50 seconds, but when I was alone I rode in my own rhythm, and not full gas. Alone I could do nothing, but I hoped that the other teams like Orica-AIS would lose power trying to catch me.”
“After the first climb of the first lap, I sat up and waited for the bunch, and when they caught me Lauren Kitchen and Mayuko Hagiwara did some attacks to try to make the race harder,” Bronzini continued. “. After that Linda did a very, very hard attack in the last 2km, and she had a little gap that Orica-AIS had to close.
“They caught her with 1km to go, and I was in the wheel of Johansson. Someone from the Australian team started to sprint with 300 metres to go, then I came out from the wheel of Johansson and I won.”
Unable to take back that precious second from Johansson, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Villumsen remains in second place with two stages to go.
“I’m really proud of the team, because we really tried to do something hard to help Linda, and we were able to do a good job and still win the stage,” said Bronzini.
Result
1. Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
2. Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS)
3. Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabobank-Liv/Giant)
Photo credit: Laurent Duflot
