Pfeiffer Georgi takes 3rd at Paris-Roubaix Femmes

Pfeiffer Georgi sprinted to an emphatic third place on the boards of the Roubaix Velodrome to take a podium spot at Paris-Roubaix Femmes.

It was a day of textbook teamwork. Moves were marked and the cobbles were entered first wheel by the team of Rachele Barbieri, Daniek Hengeveld, Franziska Koch, Charlotte Kool and Josie Nelson, whom always protected Pfeiffer Georgi at every opportunity. With 52km to go, Georgi and other race favourites in Lotte Kopecky, Marianne Vos and also Christina Schweinberger, formed a quartet breakaway that was later reeled in. With the team having put in 110% up until that point, it was then down to Pfeiffer Georgi to keep the momentum going. Within the last 20km, she put in a big effort to make her way to the lead group of 4 who then later went on to battle it out on the boards of the Vélodrome André-Pétrieux.

After her podium duties, Pfeiffer Georgi commented: “We had a bit of a crash before the important sectors so I got dropped from the front then it was just a fight back and I can’t believe it. This is a dream race of mine – I know it’s not the win but for me it means a lot. It was all about positioning today. I owe it to the girls, they put me in front in every sector and that made the difference, staying out of trouble and following. I felt really good and knew the race suited me.

“At the end it was a bit difficult as Ellen (Van Dijk) was riding to keep it together so there wasn’t a good moment to attack. I just focused on the sprint and am used to doing a bit of track so I was trying to harness that a bit.

“Some of these girls were my heroes growing up so to be in the final of Paris-Roubaix with them and stand on the podium is pretty crazy.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Kelvin Dekker added: “It was a hard one, we started already with Charlotte already in the beginning which was difficult. But we hoped it was all for the day. We do perfectly the beginning keeping Pfeiffer safe all day and getting her through the first sectors, she was so sharp and the team were already around. We lost Daniek to a puncture which was sad. Franzi was really strong and we were able to ride full gas for Pfeiffer.

“We had a difficult moment where Franzi and Pfeiffer both crashed but they made an incredible effort and Pfeiffer came back. We hoped for a moment to attack but that moment didn’t come. But to sprint to a podium int he end with such incredible sprinters is so good. We talked about a few things yesterday and I’m really happy to see the great team worked delivered the last weeks, months, years even. Today third kind of feels like winning in a way so we’re really happy.”