The toughest climb of Setmana Ciclista Valenciana awaited the peloton on Saturday, with the brutally tough Xorret de Cati cresting at only three kilometres to go. Before getting there though, even more hilly terrain made for a challenging day in the saddle where Team dsm-firmenich PostNL rode to make the stage as hard as possible. Showing some great teamwork, the team worked brilliantly to control a dangerous breakaway and reel them back in just before the final climb, positioning GC finisher Juliette Labous at the front of the race. Labous dug as deep as she could on the steep slopes, riding a measured effort and picking off riders who had started too hard, eventually cresting the climb and descending for a strong fourth place finish.
Labous said: “It was a really hard day but I’m really proud of everyone. We had the plan to go hard the whole day. There were a lot of attacks from the start and we had to survive it and the girls did such an amazing job riding hard all day. We kept to the plan when the break went because it was a good situation for us so that we could go hard and make everyone tired. Then on the final climb I gave everything I had and got fourth place. I would have liked to have got a podium but I couldn’t close the gap to Kasia. I’m happy with the shape in February and I think we can take a lot of confidence about how we rode today; it will bring us a lot this year I think.”
