No medal for French women on online race, half a sacred vollering

Passed to the attack almost 40 km from the finish, the Dutchman was too strong for the rest of the competition on Saturday in Ardèche.

The European Road Cycling Champion is Dutch for the seventh consecutive year. After failing to be crowned on the Tour de France women (2nd) and at the world championships (7th), Demi Vollering returned to victory on Saturday October 4. The 28-year-old climber, who had never shone at the European championships, brought the decisive attack in the Saint-Romain-de-Lerps coast (7 km to 7.2%) 39 km from the finish line in Guilherand-Granges, where she won alone with more than a minute in advance on her runner-up (1'18 “).

The tactic of the Dutch team was perfect, a week after the first class burial between favorites suffered in Kigali at the Worlds. Pauliena Rooijakkers printed a large tempo at the foot of the longest ascent of the 116 km of racing. Half Vollering extricated itself from a group reduced by favorites, followed by the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini, the Polish Katarzyna Niewiadoma and her compatriot Anna van der Breggen. A second attack, a few hundred meters further, allowed him to fly to his first success for four months.

Deprived of Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt, operated with an ankle, the French women failed to mix with the fight for the podium, completed by Niewiadoma (2nd) and Van der Breggen (3rd). Juliette Labous signed the best result with a sixth place at 2'31 “of half vollering, her teammate in the French formation FDJ-Suez.