Trek-Segafredo went into La Flèche Wallonne Femmes with a powerful team but supported perhaps the least expected rider, 21-year-old Gaia Realini, who repaid their efforts with her first Classics podium.
Realini could not match the victorious start-to-finish attack from Demi Vollering (SD Worx) on the Mur de Huy, but she came from behind after the toughest part, emerging from a chasing group to mow down Spanish champion Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) and claim the final podium spot.
"I feel a huge emotion that I struggle to describe in words," Realini said. "So many people said I could play my cards today, that the Mur de Huy was perfect for me, that it would be a tough race the way I like it. True things, but then there are always the competitors. And here, today, there were very strong athletes."
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Among the group with Realini were experienced riders with vast palmares like World Champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal Quickstep) and, coming backwards, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM). But Realini proved to have the most left in the legs to continue passing riders at the top.
"Thanks to the team and my teammates, I faced the challenge with great confidence and calm. They believed in me from the very beginning. We are a strong group, solid like a rock. If I got this podium today, it is because my abilities emerged thanks to teamwork and our spirit."
Realini had Shirin van Anrooij leading into the Mur de Huy and Elisa Longo Borghini alongside on the lower slopes but Vollering attacked in the first metres of the climb and never looked back.
"I think Vollering did something amazing. My tactic was to wait for the last climb to the Mur de Huy and play my chances there. Thanks to the advice of Elisa [Longo Borghini], I approached the Mur de Huy with my pace," Realini said.
"In the past few days, we looked together at the finishes of past years, and I immediately understood that I should not take it head-on right away. It was thanks to this advice that I kept a small gap and then, in the last 100 meters, accelerated and passed Mavi Garcia."
Leading into the race, Realini was modest about her ambitions, telling Cyclingnews that with teammates like Longo Borghini, Van Anrooij, Lucinda Brand, Amanda Spratt and the newly returned Lizzie Deignan, claiming to have a leadership role would be "too arrogant."
However, she shrugged off any modesty and confirmed the climbing prowess she already showed this year in the UAE Tour when up against more seasoned champions.
"Since I started my adventure with Trek-Segafredo, I have always felt the desire to do well that we have in the team as a stimulus, not a negative pressure. The same happened yesterday in the team meeting when I was named as the leader," Realini said.
"I was skeptical because I know I’m young and inexperienced, but all my teammates were telling me that I had shown my potential, that I could demonstrate it and that they would race for me. In short, an incredible confidence boost.
"I believed until the end in this result, and I am so happy to have repaid the trust."
