Vos the Boss
The world’s best riders put on a show on the final stage of the Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race today as a rider with a palmares longer than today’s stage won the 2019 race.
Mariana Vos showed the world that she is still an unreal force in women’s cycling with a convincing victory into Scarborough in front of great crowds.
Sign on in Bridlington was greeted by all seasons and at a time when wind, rain and hail hit the stage, Kelly Murphy (Storey Racing), involved in the breakaway in stage one offered some advice for the race: “You can ride through anything, it’s just mind over matter.”
It was a day for attacks and the first came from Canyon-Sram’s Alice Barnes who pulled away with around a 12 second advantage. It wasn’t to hold but did breed more attacks from a number of different riders, including the Queen of the Mountains jersey holder, and Yorkshire native, Lizzy Banks (Bigla).
From an attack, Banks went on to take the sprint points at the Harwood Dale intermediate sprint, ahead of GC leader Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) and Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv).
As the race wound its way towards the descent into Robin Hood’s Bay, World Champion and race favourite Anna van der Breggen timed an attack perfectly to break away and flew up the Cote de Hooks House Farm climb too to go level with Lizzy Banks in the QOM classification.
Home favourite, and former race winner, Lizzie Deignan tried to match the attack and went after van der Breggen and a chase group rode on to join her as the peloton began to panic and stretch out as they attempted to reel the world champion in.
A huge effort up the climb at Lythe Bank saw the pursuing group join van der Breggen that saw around 8 riders at the head of the race. Things didn’t calm down here though as Mavi Garcia (Movistar) attacked and gained a 31 second advantage ahead of the penultimate climb of the day, the Cote de Grosmont, where she took all the points.
Garcia also crested the final climb of the day at Ugglebarnby to take pole position in the QOM competition before Vos and Soraya Paladin (Alé Cipollini); 12 seconds ahead of a chasing trio of Hannah Barnes (Canyon-Sram), Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) and Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans).
Interview – Christine Majerus – Winner ASDA Green Points Jersey – WTdY 2019 by Cycling Shorts
Christine Majerus 2019 Winner of the ASDA Green Sprinters Points Jersey in the Women’s Tour de Yorkshire chats after her win. ©All content Cyclingshorts.cc | chrismaher.co.uk
Marianne is a phenomenal rider and thoroughly deserves this win because she rode it very smartly, so congratulations to her. This has been another fantastic race and the whole women’s peloton is incredibly grateful for the support we have received from the organisers. This is a top-class race and I’m looking forward to returning in September for the World Championships.
Interview – Marianne Vos – ASDA WtdY Winner 2019 by Cycling Shorts
Marianne Vos chats after winning the 2019 Women’s Tour de Yorkshire in Scarborough. ©All content CyclingShorts.cc | chrismaher.co.uk
Majerus, know for being a super domestique, seemed to offer a threat to Vos, who decided to push on alone but it wasn’t long until Paladin, who was riding off the front the whole time, reeled her in.
Hannah Barnes looked threatening at this point as she was sitting in the pursuing group exerting little energy as the front group pushed on. The old adage, as ITV4 commentator Ned Boulting remarked, goes ‘look out for those doing the least amount of work’ but it was not a slight, rather a compliment on the smarts of the Canyon-Sram rider.
However, it became evident that the three riders at the front would not be caught and, despite the headwinds causing great distress in the final few kilometres, a sprint ensued and it was CCC-Liv’s Vos who took the stage win and the overall title to be crowned Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race champion 2019.
Although not a race win for Lizzie Deignan, it was clear that the ride helped with the Otley native’s training for the upcoming world championships and after helping to thin out the field earlier on in the race with a strong attacking performance, the former winner was voted the most active riders sponsored by Dimension Data in a live Twitter poll @letouryorkshire.
I was nervous coming into the final because I didn’t know what power I had left in my legs after such a hard stage but to finish it off was incredible. I’m really happy to win here and the crowds in the last few days have been fantastic. Like us, the spectators have braved some bad weather over the last two days but they have always cheered us on. It’s been a very good race.
Stage 2 Results
Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv)
Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries GC Jersey
Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans)
Asda Points Jersey
Mavi Garcia (Movistar)
LNER Queen of the Mountains Jersey
Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo)
Dimension Data Most Active Jersey
All images ©CyclingShorts.cc | www.chrismaher.co.uk
Chris Maher
Photographer & Writer
Based in the North East of England; photographer Chris Maher specialises in sports photography with his main interests in Cycling and Super Bikes. Chris has covered sports events from local and national level right up to the Olympics for CyclingShorts.cc.
Website: www.ChrisMaher.co.uk
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Anna Magrath founded CyclingShorts.cc in 2008 and invited some of her cycling friends; coaches, photographers, writers and pro cyclists of different disciplines to join her, bringing you all things cycling related.
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