CORYN RIVERA’S dream start to her Team Sunweb career continued on Sunday with the biggest win yet of her career at the Tour of Flanders.
Racing full time having finished her studies, Rivera is well known in North America due to her sprint exploits and is now wowing European fans in a similar manner. The 24-year-old Philippine-born rider is doing so at the highest level of the sport and can forever hold the claim as the first American winner of De Ronde.
Starting her season with 15th at Omloop van het Hageland, Rivera has steadily improved across the classics campaign. Despite her victory at Trofeo Alfredo Binda and third place in Gent-Wevelgem, Rivera wasn’t considered an out and out favorite for De Ronde. However, she timed her run to the line to perfection and took the win ahead of Gracie Elvin and Chantal Blaak.
With a celebration of disbelief when crossing the line, Rivera was overcome by emotion after her victory, explaining in her first television interview post-victory that
“This is unbelievable. I can’t begin to explain it yet,” she said.
Having had time to gather her thoughts and revel in the win, Rivera was full of praise for her teammates, breaking down the actions which led to victory.
“Just to start the women’s Ronde van Vlaanderen is absolutely incredible, it’s such a beautiful race,” said Rivera, who was 16th on her debut last year. “The team did a brilliant job keeping the leaders safe and in a good position throughout the race. When the going got tough the team animated the race with Rozanne [Slik] taking a lead before the Kanarieberg. Here we showed our intentions to make it a hard race and when the first bunch of 30 exploded on the Kruisberg, we were up there but we couldn’t follow on the climb.
“The team gave everything on the Kwaremont to get the group back at the wheel and we almost closed it, but in the end we couldn’t follow the four best climbers. From the moment that Hans [Timmermans] made the call to go full gas for me, Ellen [van Dijk] took charge of the pace. The sprint was absolutely thrilling, but I still feel like I am dreaming.”
Team Sunweb Coach Hans Timmermans further explained that victory was only possible through dedicated teamwork and was thrilled to have executed the plan.
“It was a perfect example of how this team can create a plan and make it work no matter what,” Timmermans said. “We missed the power on the hills which makes it even more impressive that we took the win today. All six of our riders did a perfect job today and you need a complete team effort to win Flanders. We are thrilled to take the win at such a prestigious race.”
With her victory, Rivera became the first multiple winner in the 2017 Women’s WorldTour and leads the season-long rankings on 325 points. Former leader Elisa Longo Borghini drops to fourth with Elena Cecchini (Canyon–SRAM) into second on 265 points.
The next race on the Women’s WorldTour calendar is the inaugural running of Amstel Gold Race to kick off a full Ardennes week of racing for the women’s peloton—a race which could well suit the fast finish of Rivera.
A 15-rider chase group caught a four-rider breakaway with one kilometer remaining to set the stage for a reduced bunch gallop. Around 300 meters from the finish line, Rivera opened the sprint and held on to take the biggest victory of her young career.
“When your team goes all out for you like that, you definitely have to do your job,” said Rivera. “The pressure was on.”
The women’s peloton rolled out for the start of Ronde van Vlaanderen under sunny skies from the market square of Oudenaarde. Sunday’s menu included the longest route yet: a 153-km course with 12 climbs, some cobbled and five additional cobbled sections. Like the men’s event, the women’s race finished back in Oudennarde.
There were several early escape attempts, but none of the breakaways managed to gain any traction. The race came to life over the infamous Muur of Geraardsbergen with five climbs and 60 kms remaining.
Rozanne Slik (Team Sunweb) slipped away from the 50-rider selection that had formed over the Muur. She gained a 90-second advantage and spent 20 kilometres away before she was caught on the Kanarieberg.
Kasia Niewiadoma (WM3) countered Slik’s catch. The attack sounded an alarm amongst the leaders. Lizzie Deignan (Boels-Dolmans) immediately jumped on the move. Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5), Ashleigh Moolman Paiso (Cervelo-Bigla) and Elena Cecchini (Canyon SRAM) followed. A stretched out and slimmed down bunch quickly caught the quartet but damage had been done. Where there had once been 50 up front, only 30-odd riders remained.
Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) led that group into the Kruisberg where her teammate Anna van der Breggen launched an attack that inspired what looked like the race-winning move. The Olympic road champion had Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini and Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-Scott) for company. The quartet traded pulls and built up a significant advantage.
In their wake, a chase group formed that included Rivera and Van Dijk. Boels-Dolmans and Canyon SRAM each had three riders in the second group. Cervelo-Bigla had two.
With Canyon SRAM and Sunweb assuming the lion’s share of the chase work and the gap holding fairly steady, it initially looked like the winner would come from the four out front—until Van der Breggen, on orders from the team car, stopped working. Lacking teammates in the group behind, Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma fully committed to the escape. Van Vleuten also continued to trade turns.
The psychological blow of Van der Breggen’s lack of cooperation along with one less set of legs to share the workload spelled the end of the escape. With Van Dijk on the front, the chase group swallowed up the escape under the flamme rouge.
“From the moment that [sport director] Hans [Timmermans] made the call to go full gas for me, Ellen took charge of the pace,” Rivera said. “Ellen chased it down crazy hard, and we also had some help from Canyon. We were committed to the plan of sprinting.”
That commitment was well-rewarded as Rivera took the win.
“The sprint was absolutely thrilling,” she said. “I still feel like I am dreaming.” CYCLINGNEWS
Image credits: CyclingNews