Having sprinted into tenth place behind the break in yesterday’s fifth stage of the Trophée d’Or, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s double Olympic champion Laura Trott got herself into the winning move on stage stage six and took third place. The stage was won by Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank-Liv/Giant), who jumped away from the rest of the group in the closing kilometres, with Trott narrowly pipped on the line by Italian sprinter Marta Tagliaferro (MCipollini-Giordana) just seven seconds later.
The 88km stage between Orval and Saint-Amand-Montrond saw an eight-rider move escape, which included Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier, but the group was caught midway through. As a new break formed, Trott managed to jump across the widening gap, but was sadly powerless when van Vleuten put in her winning attack.
“The break went originally with Anna in it, which was the first break of the day, bit that came back together,” Trott explained. “Then we actually missed the break when it went, and Giorgia [Bronzini] said ‘just go, just ride across,’ so I just rode across.”
The gap was already 20-25 seconds wide as Trott chased across, putting in an effort similar to that in taking a lap in a Points Race on the track.
“Well that was exactly what it felt like!” she laughed.
“Coming towards the end, Annemiek put in an attack on her own, and that was it,” Trott added. “She just rode away, and I ended up rolling third in the end, which was quite good!”
The third place represents Trott’s best finish in an international UCI-registered road race this year, going one better than her previous best fourth place in the GP Dotignies on April 1st. It also serves to neatly book end the 21-year-old’s 2013 road season, as she now looks towards the major track events of the winter.
“I came fourth in my first race of the year,” Trott confirmed. “It’s a nice end to my year on the road, actually, because that was probably the last road race that I’m going to do.
“The nationals are in September, and then it’s straight into the Euros after that,” she explained. “Then two weeks later it’s the World Cup in Manchester.”
