Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women prove themselves in second stage Tour Down Under
The riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women had a good second stage of the Santos Tour Down Under. Maud Oudeman, Lieke Nooijen and Rosita Reijnhout were part of the reduced peloton that fought for the day's victory. In the end, the yellow and black trio had to settle for a place outside the top ten. The stage win went to Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig.
The second stage of the Australian stage race took the riders from Glenelg to Stirling. For a long time, not much happened on the hilly course. There were a few attacks in the last 50 kilometres, but the peloton neutralised them all. The peloton was reshuffled during the local laps in Stirling. Oudeman, Nooijen and Reijnhout were among the favourites in the reduced peloton. Ultimately, the Visma | Lease a Bike Women riders finished just outside the top ten on the sloping finish.
"We had a good day”, Oudeman said. "After yesterday, we decided to be a bit more aggressive. We tried to stretch out the peloton when the wind was strong. Unfortunately, it didn't go as we had hoped, but the team's effort was good. Ultimately, we had four riders in the front after some good work by Nienke (Veenhoven) and Linda (Riedmann). We just missed out on the sprint, but we can look back on this stage with satisfaction.”
"With each race, we are making progress"
"With an average age of 20, we are the youngest team here”, Oudeman continued. "With each race, we are making progress. Coming here with five U23 riders is excellent. We can be proud of that. Tomorrow, we have another challenging stage with a finish on Willunga Hill. The team spirit is already good. We are looking forward to it.”
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