On Saturday, Quebecer Olivia Baril (UAE ADQ) took part in her first World Tour race of the season at the Strade Bianche in Siena, Italy. A day filled with small misfortunes that forced Baril and his team to draw on their energy reserves to get by.
“It wasn’t easy for our team, I was caught behind a small fall before the third sector and I had to expend a lot of energy to come back. Then my teammate Silvia Persico also crashed just before an important sector. Finally, I had to change my bike in a gravel section after a mechanical problem and it was a long time before the car could reach me,” Baril told Sportcom in an interview.
After this series of misadventures, Baril and Persico decided to change their strategy to go a little further and try to make things happen. The two cyclists initially had to keep reserves in order to set the table for Erica Magnaldi in the last part of the course.
“We wanted to try an attack, we didn’t know if it was going to work or not. We had to do something, otherwise our day was almost over. Silvia’s attack didn’t last long, so I counterattacked. It worked for a while, but then I got caught up and there was not much to do,” she explained.
“These are things that happen in races like this where there are gravel sections, you can’t control everything. At least I felt good and in good shape. »
After 136 kilometers of effort, Baril finally took 61e rank, crossing the finish line 8 min 24 s behind the winner of the day, the Dutchwoman Demi Vollering (SD Worx).
The latter also worked hard until the last second, when she defeated her Belgian teammate Lotte Kopecky in the sprint. American Kristen Faulkner (Jayco AlUla) completed the top 3, 18 seconds behind the leading duo.
Earlier this season, Olivia Baril managed to do well at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana (2. Pro), on the Spanish side, where she finished fifth overall after the four stages of the test.
The athlete from Rouyn-Noranda will now take a few weeks to train at altitude before resuming action in the Ardennes in April.