Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Jolien D’hoore took her second straight victory of the 2015 Boels Rentals Ladies Tour, as she won stage two, in Tiel, in another bunch sprint. The Belgian Champion came around Netherlands Champion Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv) as the line approached, with Luxembourg Champion Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) in third place. A ten-second time bonus on the line – as well as two seconds taken at the second intermediate sprint of the day – means that D’hoore maintains her lead in the General Classification.
“Today was a nervous race again,” D’hoore said after the stage. “Every body wanted to be in the first ten of the peloton, but there was not enough wind so nothing could really happen. We tried a few times as a team to make an echelon, or to make the race hard, so it was a bunch sprint again.
“Lucinda Brand attacked the sprint and I was closed in between the barriers and Trixi Worrack, so I couldn’t get out,” D’hoore added. “I was just waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and then finally there was a gap about 50 metres from the finish! So I could get out just in time and I could beat her on the line!”
The 100km stage was subject to numerous attacks once more, but the speed of the peloton, policed by Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling, meant that nobody was able to get away. Ilona Hoeksma (Parkhotel Valkenburg) did manage to escape between the day’s two intermediate sprints and, because the Dutch rider was no threat overall, she was allowed to get more than a minute clear before the peloton began to bring her back.
“The big teams – the big riders – were looking at each other, so nobody could get away, but then obviously some solo riders could their chance,” D’hoore explained. “We tried it a few times, but it didn’t work out, so we concentrated on the bunch sprint.”
D’hoore had ignored the first intermediate sprint – which offered 3, 2 and 1 seconds for the first three across – because the finish line offered enough bonuses for her to hold the Orange Jersey. When the second sprint presented itself, however, the Belgian Champion decided to take her chance, before her Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling teammates lined her up for the stage victory again.
“The plan was not to go for the intermediate sprint, so the first one I stayed calm,” said D’hoore. “But I was up there for the second sprint – I was riding in the front of the peloton – so I wanted to go for it. I was there and I could get seconds easily, so I went for it.”
Result
1. Jolien D’hoore (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
2. Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv)
3. Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans)
