Brand wins Energiewacht Tour stage 2b

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Lucinda Brand used superior positioning and cornering skills to claim stage 2b of the Energiewacht Tour, topping Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) and Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans) in the bunch sprint.

These tough corners are Brand’s speciality, and coming into the final corner at the front with the top sprinters scrambling behind her, she sailed through, and won with plenty of distance.

“I fought to be at the front for the second-to-last corner, and treated the final corner as the finish-line”, she said after the stage. “I was scared to keep my lead in the corner, but that was the only chance to win, and it worked out. I’m not bad in a sprint, because I can position myself well, but riders like Kirsten Wild and Jolien D’hoore are so much quicker than me. I’m not a real sprinter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win a bunch sprint!”

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After winning the morning TTT, Trixi Worrack started the stage leading the general classification, but although she finished 8th, her team-mate Barbara Guarischi was 3" ahead of her in 5th place, and took over the leader’s jersey.

“Today was a really amazing day”, she told Cyclingnews, “In the afternoon I crashed, but the yellow jersey is in our hands, and that’s what’s important. I love the Dutch races, so maybe the last stage will be windy, and Trixi, Lisa Brennauer are all in a good position, so we’ll try to do our best to keep it.”

After the morning Team Time Trial, the Energiewacht Tour peloton had only a short break before the 110.2km afternoon road race. On a sunny afternoon in Leek, with the wind that usually characterises the Energiewacht Tour yet to make an appearance, the first attack came within the first five kilometres, as Julia Soek (Liv-Plantur), Stephanie Borchers (Feminine Cycling Team) and Carmen Small (USA National Team) attacked, and were soon joined by Janneke Ensing (ParkHotel Valkenburg) and Nicole Hanselmann (Swiss National Team).

The five stayed away throughout the first 45.6km lap, getting a lead of 53 seconds, but first Borchers was dropped, and then with 30km to go, the four leaders were caught, and Small’s USA team-mate Lauren Komanski tried a solo attack. She couldn’t make this stick, but as soon as she was caught, another USA team rider, Lauren Hall, was able to make a solo move. At 19km to go, approaching Zuidhorn, Hall had 25”, but she was caught under 10km to go – and Komanski immediately tried again, this time getting away with Moniek Tenniglo (Rabo-Liv). They crossed the line into the final 7km lap ahead of the peloton, but were caught, and it looked like it would be another bunch sprint, until last year’s winner Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv) took the sprint specialists by surprise, attacking with 100m to go, just before the final sharp corner.

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