The races follow one another and look alike for Olivia Baril. On Sunday, the Quebecer continued her good start to the season by taking the 22and rank of the Amstel Gold Race, in the Netherlands. With the best result from her team, Valcar-Travel & Service, the cyclist says she wants even more.
Posted at 4:02 p.m.
The race was held at high speed on the flat course of 129 kilometers. The various participating formations fought hard to ride at the forefront, in order to prepare for an explosive end to the event.
After seeing several competitors launch unsuccessful attacks, Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) stepped on the accelerator, leaving her rivals unresponsive in the last two kilometers of the course.
The Italian thus spun alone to victory in Valkenburg, finishing four seconds ahead of her closest pursuers. Dutch Demi Vollering (SD Worx) won the sprint for second place, followed by German Liane Lippert (DSM).
Not far behind, Olivia Baril crossed the finish line in the company of twenty runners who were 29 seconds behind the winner.
“It was a tough race from start to finish and there were no downtimes. The teams were very aggressive and good positioning was key to success today [dimanche] “, analyzed the Rouyn-Noranda athlete in an interview with Sportcom.
The last part of the race also gave Baril and her teammates a hard time, as they were unable to maintain a favorable position to respond to the attacks and stay in the race for victory.
“Unfortunately, I was not always well placed and it cost me a lot of energy in the final,” admitted the 24-year-old athlete. Of course we would have liked to have had a better result in the team, but we are still learning and we will certainly be able to recover soon. »
Also in action on the Dutch roads, Magdeleine Vallières-Mill (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) had a tough outing, finishing in 90and place, more than 10 minutes from Cavalli.
“There are days when we are not at our best and this was one of those days! I tried to take a breakaway at the very beginning, but I burned a lot of cartridges. Then, I tried to place girls from my team and I found myself at the back of the peloton, because I didn’t have the legs to come back,” commented the 20-year-old Sherbrooke resident.
Good start for Zukowsky
For his part, Nickolas Zukowsky (Human Powered Health) was in the first stage of the Tour of Turkey disputed over 202 kilometers on Sunday.
The cyclist from Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides got off to a good start in this competition scheduled for eight stages by placing 16and from the start.
He finished the day in the leading pack, led by Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal). The latter won in the sprint ahead of the Belgian Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) and his compatriot Kaden Groves (BikeExchange – Jayco).
The second stage will stretch over 156 kilometers and will take the riders to Alaçati on Monday.