The final day of racing at the Tour of Britain saw the peloton take a short but challenging stage, with 99 kilometres of rolling terrain to contend with in the Manchester area. Coupled with the rainy and windy conditions, it was set to be a hard day out in the saddle. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL aimed to make it as hard as possible, starting the stage with the main goal of trying to put Pfeiffer Georgi into a position to move up on the overall GC.
Everyone committed to their role brilliantly, whether that was early positioning work or rolling the attacks to try and force a harder pace and split the race. Coming onto the second climb of the day at Ramsbottom Rake, Charlotte Kool ripped it into the bottom of the ascent before Franziska Koch took over and set a fierce tempo which set up Georgi perfectly. Over the top of the climb only the top four riders on GC, including Georgi, remained at the front of the race, but with still 50 kilometres to go things became tactically and the race regrouped.
Coming into the finale the team tried multiple times to go clear once more, whether that have been Georgi attacking multiple times, or Koch trying to draw clear a group too. In the end though, things were controlled and the day would be decided in a reduced group sprint. It was a technical run-in on the twisting and wet roads and Georgi came around the last corner in around sixth position; the place where she would ultimately finish on the day, and as a result take a strong fourth place on GC.
Georgi expressed: “It was a really tough day with full gas racing from the start. The girls were all really strong and paced the steep climb hard to split up the race. I was in a group of four over the top then Franzi came back in a small group and helped cover attacks before setting me up to attack in the finale. From there I kept attacking with the GC podium in mind but nothing got away and it ended in a reduced sprint. I am disappointed not to reward the whole team’s commitment with a podium but we kept trying until the end so can be proud of how we raced.”
