Former racer Tom Dumoulin has mentioned that latest Dutch domination at La Vuelta Femenina may very well be seen as a “dangerous signal” for girls’s racing.
The race, the eleventh version of the ladies’s Grand Tour, noticed all six of the individually contested levels gained by Dutch riders.
Marianne Vos, Femke Gerritse, Anna van der Breggen, and Demi Vollering shared the stage spoils amongst themselves. The ultimate podium noticed Vollering and Van der Breggen take first and third general, whereas Vos and Vollering gained the factors and mountain classifications.
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Vollering will even line up because the favorite to win the following main girls’s stage race, the upcoming Itzulia Ladies (Might 16-18), which she gained final yr.
Talking on Dutch biking podcast De Grote Plaat, Dumoulin apprehensive in regards to the degree of dominance his compatriots displayed on the race.
“If I acquired it proper, the Netherlands gained all of the levels within the Vuelta. That is not regular, is it? That is additionally an indication of the place girls’s biking can nonetheless develop,” he mentioned. “Is it a nasty signal? I feel so.
“In pace skating, all of us cry that it’s a small sport as a result of we [the Netherlands] win all of the medals on the Olympics, and the identical will be mentioned of ladies’s biking. After all, it was totally different within the spring.”
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As Dumoulin concedes, Dutch riders have not had all of it their method this season, regardless of quite a few triumphs from Vollering (Strade Bianche), Lorena Wiebes (Milan-San Remo, Traditional Brugge-De Panne, and Gent-Wevelgem), Mischa Bredewold (Amstel Gold Race), and Puck Pieterse (La Flèche Wallonne) within the spring.
The Ladies’s WorldTour calendar so far has seen wins by Italians (Elisa Longo Borghini and Elisa Balsamo), Belgians (Lotte Kopecky and Lotte Claes), and riders from Mauritius, Switzerland, and Australia (Kim Le Court docket, Noemi Rüegg, and Ally Wollaston), too, whereas the highest 20 of the UCI rankings at present options 14 non-Dutch riders.
Dumoulin regarded forward to the Tour de France Femmes in July, noting that Van der Breggen has, ominously, room to develop after a very long time away from racing. She’s anticipated to be a prime favorite for glory in France this summer time, once more alongside Vollering.
“Logically, or so you’ll say, she nonetheless has room for development as she has only some races left in her legs after years of not racing. I hope she’s going to enhance in direction of the Tour de France,” he mentioned.
Dumoulin mentioned that males’s biking might study from the ladies’s sport, given what he had seen at La Vuelta. He mentioned “enormous strides” have been made just lately, calling it a “top-class sport” at that degree, even when there are nonetheless gaps to be closed on the decrease finish – a course of that may take time.
“Large strides have actually been made lately. It is now far more engaging to look at. It’s a top-class sport on the highest degree,” he mentioned. “You had about 30 riders within the Vuelta who’re actually good, who give their all, and are prime professionals. Many male cyclists might study one thing from that.
“However there are additionally girls who experience at a totally totally different degree, and you’ll see that within the outcomes. In recent times, the ladies’s peloton has undergone such an infinite improvement. Many groups have emerged, and luckily, they’re now paying good salaries, however you may’t practice all new feminine cyclists inside 5 years.”
