Ese Lovina Ukperesaye narrowly missed her first UCI top-ten place today when she sprinted to fourteenth place at Veenendaal-Veenendaal Classic. The CANYON//SRAM Generation team battled torrential rain in the final kilometres, with Riejanne Markus taking a solo win just nine seconds ahead of the peloton.

The peloton raced four laps around Veenendaal in the Netherlands with small sections of crosswinds and a small climb each lap the biggest hurdles of the day. A seven-rider breakaway formed around the halfway point of the 136km-long race. The peloton caught the breakaway with around 15km to go before the skies opened and torrential rain poured down. Markus took the initiative and went ahead of the group, leading the race by around 10-20 seconds for the entire final ten kilometres. In the sprint to the line, Ese Lovina navigated her way alone through the group to cross the line in fourteenth place. Zoe Bäckstedt was 22nd and 19-year-old Awen Roberts also finished in the first group.

Ese Lovina’s result is testament to the role of CANYON//SRAM Generation as a development pathway and is the start of many more exciting things to come for the ambitious group of young cyclists.

RIDER REACTIONS

Ese Lovina Ukperesaye: “I was happy to selected for the team for this race after I saw the course and the small climbs  when I saw the root of the race the climbs was very good for me?The race itself was not so hard but it was difficult to move to the front and to help my teammates. With around 10km to go I was talking with Awen as I know she’s good for positioning and I wanted to move forward to the front to help Zoe in the sprint. It was a fight to get to the front and Zoe was not there for the sprint. If I was in a better position I think I could have done more than 14th place. I would have been able to wait longer until I started the sprint. It was a good learning experience. I gave my best but I know I can do better.”

Zoe Bäckstedt: “The first race with the Generation team was fun, and I enjoyed it. It’s cool to race with a new group of teammates, and we enjoyed a good atmosphere together. It was quite a tough race to come back to. The race was totally flat except for the one climb each lap since everyone knew that was the hardest part of the course. The crosswinds also made it a tough race. I enjoyed it, but it was a hard race to get back into racing. The final was really crazy, with such poor vision and a lot of water across the road. I got held up behind a crash with around 3km to go, but I didn’t come down and could make it around the riders and then get back to near the front just before the sprint. I’m happy with my race and looking forward to racing with the team again on Sunday.” 

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