Franziska Koch takes over Simac Ladies Tour GC lead after strong ride in the breakaway

After two sprint finishes and some additional echelon action yesterday, today’s stage appeared to be another good opportunity for the sprinters. While the profile didn’t present too many challenges, the riders put on an exciting race today. With about 60 kilometres to go, two riders finally initiated a breakaway, and Franziska Koch bridged across with eleven other riders to form a strong group at the front of the race. The 14 leaders gained a maximum gap of almost two minutes and worked well together, while the rest of Team dsm-firmenich PostNL looked after each other in the peloton, in case the race came back together. However, the strong leaders’ group still had a gap of about 50 seconds coming into the final five kilometres. The group continued to collaborate well until the sprint, where Franziska chose a good wheel and sprinted to a commendable fourth place for the team. The chasing peloton crossed the line 36 seconds behind the winner, which means Franziska now takes over the lead in the GC, with two stages remaining.
Koch said: “It was a pleasant surprise today! We were all sharp in our attacks throughout the day, and I managed to get into the right move that made it to the finish. It was quite a good situation for us, as I had a strong chance of moving up in the GC, and we still had a very fast rider, Charlotte, in the peloton if things came back together. That allowed me to really commit to the breakaway and keep the gap as wide as possible. I am very happy that it was enough in the end to take over the leader’s jersey.”