Riding 120 kilometers out of 163 in the leading group of the prestigious Tour of Flanders, that’s what Olivia Baril did on Sunday in Belgium. The Valcar-Travel & Service cyclist was part of the morning breakaway of four riders and it is these kilometers ahead that she will remember from her day, much more than from her 46and up (+3 minutes 46 seconds).
Posted at 4:59 p.m.
Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) pleased the crowd by winning the sprint ahead of Dutchwoman and former world champion Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar).
After four and a quarter hours of effort where she went to the end of her reserves as rarely in her cycling career, Baril wrote these words to Sportcom in response to an interview request shortly after the race.
“I will send you a voice message shortly… I have difficulty living now,” texted the Quebecer, taking care to add humorous emojis to enhance her message. Three hours later, it was in person that she commented on her crazy day when she burned 3500 calories according to her data collected.
“The atmosphere of the race was really cool! The fans were screaming, it smelled of beer and they knew our names,” explained Baril, who was able to count on the support of the Tifosi who encouraged her, because she is part of an Italian team.
The athlete from Rouyn-Noranda does not analyze this long breakaway as a personal highlight, but as proof that she was able to do the job expected of her. And it shows in his words.
“My sports director believes in me enormously and that means a lot to me! He said to me: “You are so strong and there, everyone knows it.” I put in a good performance, but I don’t feel like a different person. I’m the same runner and I’m happy because I gained confidence. I achieved my goal of being in the breakaway and the team is proud of me. That’s really what matters. »
Baril is considered the climber of her team and it is almost backwards that she presented herself on the Belgian cobbles this week.
“It’s not made for me physically and it’s extremely technical. I never did those races, but my manager believed in me to support my teammates,” revealed the 24-year-old athlete who was only in the fourth race of his career on the cobblestones.
“When we did the reconnaissance of the course, I said to myself: ‘I’m going to race on Sunday, but then I never want to do it again'”, continued the Quebecer, laughing and confirming that she will not be in Paris-Roubaix in order to concentrate on the Ardennes and races in Spain next month.
The race movie
Olivia Baril joined forces with Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), Sofie Van Rooijen (Parkhotel Valkenburg) and Maria Martins (Le Col-Wahoo) at the start of the event and they maintained a gap under 4 minutes. Van Rooijen and Martins were knocked out 85 kilometers from the line and the two North Americans continued their run. The pair were then joined by three riders with 56 kilometers to go and 15 kilometers later Honsinger had no more reserves to keep up.
“My sporting director told me to keep going and it was my job to be in the breakaway, so I kept going. Every time we made a wall [montée en pavés] I told myself that I would dropbut I did not drop ! »
Already out of the lead, it was in the Taaienberg, with 35 kilometers to go, that Baril was overtaken by the peloton of favorites. The Quebecer was able to catch her breath in this group which was slow to organize the hunt on the first.
“I was trying to help my teammate Silvia [Persico, 11e] and when I saw that the main peloton was broken in two, I made an effort to help them”, specified the one who was finally ejected from her peloton in the ascent of Kruisberg/Hotond, place where the Dutch Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar) went on the attack.
The latter returned to the charge in the Paterberg 13 kilometers from the finish line and it was then Chantal Van den Broeke (SD Worx) who made the attack that would decide the podium two kilometers later.
Van Vleuten chased hard to come back on her with Lotte Kopecky, well wedged in her wheel. Two against one, SD Worx perfectly controlled their lead and settled the sprint in favor of Kopecky, who signed his second victory of the season after raising his arms to Strade Bianche.