Boels- Dolmans on top in California
The parcours of the Tour of California women’s race was a well-balanced three-course menu, featuring a hilly and windy first course with a stage to Ventura, a chewy main course with the climb up to Mount Baldy, and a more straightforward dessert – a lumpy stage with a flat run-in to Pasadena. It looked like there was something for everybody, except that Anna van der Breggen took literally the saying attributed to her compatriot, 1970s racer Hennie Kuiper: “Bike racing is licking your opponent’s plate clean before starting on your own.”
Van der Breggen wasted no time in making herself the favourite for the race which she had also won in 2017 by attacking on her own in the final third of the first stage to Ventura. The wind was incredibly strong and it had blown in the peloton’s face for the first half of the stage. However, with the wind behind her as she looped back to the surf city, she made good her escape, and a final kay back into the teeth of the wind didn’t stop her from winning solo by 18 seconds. The next day, Van der Breggen and her team-mate Katie Hall were the strongest on the race
defining climb to Mount Baldy. They dropped everybody, and only four more riders finished within a minute, while Van der Breggen let Hall take the stage win. BoelsDolmans now held first and second overall, and Van der Breggen was happy to coast in with a 30-rider sprint for stage 3 to Pasadena.
Boels-Dolmans are still very strong, but they’ve not had everything go their way this year, thanks to the rising tide which is lifting the whole women’s peloton as it gets stronger and more organised. They didn’t win a WWT event until Van der Breggen took out Flèche Wallonne. However, California showed that the Dutchwoman is coming into some strong form, and Hall’s second place confirmed her abilities. Van der Breggen’s appetite for winning shows no sign of abating as the Giro d’Italia looms.