Team dsm-firmenich PostNL take 3rd place on GC at Itzulia Women with Juliette Labous

Entering the final day of racing at Itzulia Women, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL sat in second place overall with Juliette Labous but knew to expect some hard racing over the steep climbs before the flatter run-in to the finish in Donostia.

From the start the team were active in covering the moves, before a group of 13 riders went clear that featured Eleonora Ciabocco. The break worked well together and extended their lead to roughly two minutes but as the steeper climbs approached the pace ramped up and the catch was made on the last ascent of the day. There, eventual stage and race winner Vollering made her move, launching a stinging attack. Labous dug deep to initially follow the move but had to let go of the wheels approaching the top. Forming a chase group alongside some others, that group was then caught by a secondary chase group as they entered the city and approached the finale; where a sprint was set up to fight for the remaining stage podium places. Labous followed the wheels well and pushed to the line, taking seventh place on the day; and with it securing third overall on GC after a good three days of racing by the team.

Speaking after the podium Labous said: “The race was hard today, and Eleonora got into a nice group in front. The girls in the bunch did a really great job to position me in the best possible spot for the steep climb. I followed Vollering for a long time but I dropped before the top. In the end it came back together for second place on the stage but I’m really happy to finish on the podium of the general classification and I’m thankful for the work of everyone this week. Now I’m looking forward to some rest and then training to prepare for the summer goals.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Callum Ferguson added: “We wanted to get someone in the break today so that we could support Juliette later, and Eleonora made it in which was good. We knew that Juliette needed to use the top of that final climb to go all-in and try to follow any attacks. Unfortunately, she just wasn’t able to follow Vollering when she went full-gas. In the morning we had hoped that the break would make it almost to the top of the climb so that we would then have someone to help in the chase but unfortunately it was caught at the bottom. After the climb the group of around eight Juliette was in worked together but everyone kept a bit of something back and they then got caught by the bigger chasing group. There wasn’t really much more that we could do today and even though Juliette dropped to third on GC, I think we can still be pleased with that after the three days here.”