Bigla: Stage win and yellow jersey for Koedooder
21.4.2014
Bigla Cycling Team had a perfect day at the Energiewacht Tour (UCI 2.2) in the Netherlands today. Dutchwoman Vera Koedooder won the first half stage after a long solo ride, took over the yellow jersey in the general classification and in the afternoon the six girls from Bigla managed it to defend the leading jersey.
The first stage of the day covered 97,1 kilometres on a 32,4 kilometres lap. After the first lap Australian Chloe McConville attacked and Vera Koedooder followed her. They built an advantage of four minutes back to the bunch. On the last lap the bunch tried to get back to the front but the advantage only was reduced to 1:25 minutes, when Koedooder attacked with 15 kilometres to go, left the Australian behind her and increased the gap to 3 minutes again.
Koedooder managed to stay in front alone and could celebrate her victory at the finish as a soloist. McConville came to the finish 2:22 minutes later, the bunch 3:02 minutes behind. That meant, Koedooder would take over the leading from her compatriot Kirsten Wild, who won the first to stages with a advantage of 1:09 minutes to Wild.
In the team time trial it was up to the whole Bigla Cycling Team to defend Koedooders yellow jersey and they did a fantastic job. Although they forfeit some seconds, they were able to defend the leading position. Bigla Cycling Team finished the 15,1 kilometres fight against the clock in 11th place 1:02 minutes behind the winning team Specialized-lululemon. Team Giant-Shimano with former leader Kirsten Wild only gained 29 seconds to Bigla and so Koedooder stayed in front of the general classification. She has an advantage 31 respectively 33 seconds over Germans Trixi Worrack and Lisa Brennauer (Specialized-lululemon).
„I attack often and usually it's for nothing, but today it has been worth all that effort. We didn't come here to win the tour, we wanted to go for stage wins. In the first two days our team achieved seome top ten results in the bunch sprints and today I tried. I attacked the Australian 15 kilometres before the finish. It was still a long way to the finish, but fortunately I have a lot of attack kilometers in the legs and I had high hopes to keep up. I still do not look at the general classification, but we will do our very best to keep the jersey. And even if we lose the jersey, the stage victory already surpassed all expectations“, Koedooder said.
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