When the three-rider breakaway with Femke de Vries (GT Krush RebelLease), Margaux Vigié (Lifeplus Wahoo) and Amalie Lutro (Uno-X Professional Biking Crew) was caught with 28 km to go on stage 1 of the Simac Women Tour, few would have anticipated De Vries to go on the assault once more within the closing. That, nevertheless, is precisely what the 29-year-old from Nijmegen did, leaping from the peloton with one lap of a 16.3-kilometre ending circuit to go.
“It was extra to a give it a try to see what occurs, quite a bit can occur. And the race was on my coaching roads, so it was very nice to be within the entrance right this moment with all of the encouragement alongside the highway,” De Vries informed Cyclingnews.
After being reeled within the first time, she initially had no ideas in any respect of going once more on stage 1, greater than busy with simply staying within the peloton because it went up the day’s solely categorized climb.
“Once I was caught, I might solely take into consideration following the peloton as a result of it went quick uphill, however fortunately, I received assist from my teammates. It was a bit of bit later that I recovered a bit and with the combativity jersey in my thoughts, I noticed one other good second for an assault,” De Vries mentioned.
She shortly constructed a bonus of ten seconds and stayed forward of the peloton for a while earlier than being caught once more 9 kilometres from the road. Nonetheless, De Vries’ aggressive racing paid off with a visit to the rostrum the place she acquired the pink jersey for probably the most combative rider.
De Vries got here into biking comparatively late, taking over the game throughout her medical research on the Radboud College in Nijmegen.
“I began biking at NSWV Mercurius, a biking membership for college kids. I fell in love with it instantly and was curious what I might do in competitors. I did some operating and subject hockey throughout my highschool, however nothing actually devoted like biking,” she defined.
From 2019, De Vries raced with the Dutch novice outfit Crew Loving Potatoes, the ladies’s workforce of well-known biking membership De Jonge Renner. For 2022, she joined UCI Continental Crew GT Krush Tunap, now GT Krush RebelLease. Till just lately, she mixed her biking profession with working as a physician, however De Vries then determined to pay attention totally on biking in the meanwhile.
“I labored in geriatrics part-time till final winter, then I had the chance to do biking full-time. I believed that I is usually a physician the remainder of my life and that is what I like to do, so the choice was made. It’s my dream to race a Grand Tour,” De Vries mentioned.
Her 2022 teammate Daniek Hengeveld made a reputation for herself with breakaways and assaults earlier than signing for Crew dsm-firmenich, mix this with different medical docs within the sport, like Élise Chabbey and Marlen Reusser and it’s clear {that a} lateral entry to the game may be very a lot potential. With outcomes this 12 months that embrace a few prime tens in addition to a second place within the closing stage on the Baloise Women Tour, then a jersey securing attacking present of power on the Simac Women Tour, De Vries could also be one other step nearer to becoming a member of them on the highest stage of ladies’s biking.