Brits shine at Healthy Ageing Tour
British riders gave a fine account of themselves across all three stages of last week’s three-stage Healthy Ageing Tour in the Netherlands.
Top-10 on every stage – including second place on stage one – saw reigning British road champion Alice Barnes finish the Healthy Ageing Tour seventh overall. A brace of top-10s from Anna Henderson (Jumbo-visma) saw her place next-best Brit on GC in 10th, while Joscelin Lowden of Drops-le Col was 11th, courtesy of a strong ride in stage two’s blustery 14.4km time trial.
The UCI 2.1 race, which ran from Wednesday to Friday, was won overall by Trek-segafredo’s Ellen Van Dijk, who beat Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-wnt) and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) into second and third place respectively.
“My legs felt really good today, even over the Vam-berg each time,” said Barnes after stage three, which comprised 18 short laps over the cobbled Vam-berg climb. “I had cramps in the last laps, and I’m quite frustrated that I didn’t get to give it everything in the final. Fortunately we don’t have long to wait for the next race,” added the 25-year-old, who competed at the GP Oetingen in Belgium the following day.
“17.5 laps of VAM made my legs go BAM,” quipped Anna Henderson on social media following the race.
“Happy to hold on to a top-10 GC in the end and get some good feelings over these three days,” she added.
The race had been in the news the previous week, having raised enough money through crowdfunding and a benefactor to fund a live broadcast on Eurosport.