CANYON//SRAM Racing today started the three-day Bloeizone Fryslan tour strongly with four riders placing in the top eleven in the individual time trial opening stage. Lisa Klein, Alice Barnes and Sarah Roy finished in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively with less than nine seconds separating the trio. Crossing the line in eleventh place, teammate Shari Bossuyt took the lead in the young rider classification.

The relatively short 14km ITT stage around Surhuisterveen was won by current ITT world champion Ellen van Dijk (TFS) in a time of 18:34 minutes with an average speed over 46.5km/hour.

Read the reactions of the CANYON//SRAM Racing riders following stage one.

Lisa Klein: “My technique was good and my pacing was as I had planned today. The second half of the race was really super and I felt like I was one unit with the TT bike. That was a great feeling. I would have liked to go deeper but I just couldn’t. It’s still early in the season. I am okay with my performance today, though not at all satisfied. My shoulder was manageable during the ride but I can feel it’s quite sore now. I look forward to having some fun on the stage tomorrow with my teammates and making it a hard battle.”

Alice Barnes: “I paced my ride pretty well. We had a good strategy to make the most of resting into corners and knowing where to invest. I finished with nothing left which is the most important thing. I’m happy with where my ride put me in sixth place. We are now well-positioned as a team where we have a lot of options for the next two stages.”

Sarah Roy: “My race today mostly went to plan. I was going well for the first three-quarters of the course but the final 3km straight run home I struggled to maintain the power and lost a lot of speed. If I was to do it again I wouldn’t ease up so much before some of the corners but I think my biggest improvements can come from riding the TT bike more in training at home. I’m relatively new to time trialling and find I don’t have the endurance in the aggressive position or the ability to keep my head down but with more time on the TT bike, I hope to improve in all areas. I had some fun out there with Lars (Teutenberg) on the radio, being our first time as a team in a TT. I found his direction really good and I think we can be happy with my result but also the whole team. We have three in the top seven and four in the top eleven which is pretty cool.”

Shari Bossuyt: “I am super happy with this result. Not in the top ten which would have been nice but I think I can be very satisfied with my time trial today. Everything went to plan and I had nothing left at the end. It’s also nice to have the young rider jersey for the team going into stage two tomorrow.”

Ella Harris: “For the first TT of the year, I’m really pleased with it because I think my overall performance was at a similar level to what I was doing at the end of last year. I think I nailed the build-up to the TT, as my legs felt good from the get-go and I felt nicely warmed up leaving the ramp. I was worried about how I would feel with limited time to adjust to the new bike, but the positioning felt pretty good in the race. I let myself down a little with the final 5km or so when I could have concentrated on technique more to increase power and efficiency. Being a little higher in the placings would have been nice, especially with a large group of riders not so far away, but pleased to set a solid TT benchmark that I can continue to improve during the year.”

Maud Oudeman: “It was a hard TT with a lot of corners. The pacing went well and I feel already a lot of improvement compared to last year. It was nice to prepare with my teammates, to see how they handle nerves and how they prepare for a TT. In the preparation, it went well today. With some more training on speed on the TT bike, I hope to improve myself more for next time. I think there is a lot of space for improvement and now I really know what I can work on. It was a good new experience today!”

HOW TO FOLLOW

Stage two of Bloeizone Fryslan tour can be followed on Twitter with #BFT22. Stages are broadcast daily on Omrop Fryslân, GCN and Eurosport. The results and live timings are also online here.

Stage 2 | Friday 4 March | 135km | Eastermar – Bakkeveen | 11:45 – 15:00CET | Broadcast 13:00-15:00CET

Stage 3 | Saturday 5 March | 137km | Drachten – Drachten | 09:45 – 13:00CET | Broadcast 11:30-13:15CET

Images: ©SportFoto.nl | Lars Schiffner

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