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How to outsmart the peloton – a lesson from Daniek Hengeveld – Rouleur

How to outsmart the peloton – a lesson from Daniek Hengeveld
– Rouleur

“I don’t think we need to do anything just yet,” Liv-Alula-Jayco sports director Gene Bates speaks into his race radio. There’s just over 30 kilometres to go on the opening stage of the women’s Tour Down Under and the race situation is this: Daniek Hengeveld of Ceratzit-WNT rides solo under the sun which beats down on the rolling Adelaide hills. There’s a peloton two minutes behind her filled with some of the best sprinters in the current women’s WorldTour and teams like Liv-Alula-Jayco, FDJ-Suez, AG Insurance-Soudal and Canyon//SRAM-Zondacrypto (among others) all have sprinters in their mix who should be in a shot of a stage win on the flat run into Snapper Point. Should is the operative word, however. As Hengeveld is proving, there are no guarantees in cycling. 

Bates is playing the game with his Australian squad, and other teams aren’t yet taking his bait. It’s a stalemate. Who has the responsibility to chase Hengeveld down? Is it the home favourites of Liv-Alula-Jayco? Is it FDJ-Suez with double-Olympic medalist Ally Wollaston in their ranks? Is it Canyon//SRAM-Zondacrypto who have a flying Chloe Dygert to protect? The question is, who can hold their nerve for long enough? Which team will panic first? The bunch spreads across the wide roads and slows down, they look at each other and wait.

Capitalising off the poker behind is, of course, Hengeveld, whose gap continues to grow. An established time trialist known for her attacking style, she has her head down and is focused on the road ahead. The kilometres tick away and the gap holds strong. Slowly teams begin to sense the danger behind, first Canyon then FDJ, then Bates sends a Liv rider to the front of the peloton too. They start to ride but it’s too little, too late. Hengeveld powers to the finish line and still has almost a minute on the bunch by the time she gets there. She celebrates and secures the biggest win of her career, and the others are left to fight for scraps behind. They should have caught her. A peloton should have been stronger than one rider on flat roads with a tailwind, but too many teams got it wrong. Hengeveld, on the other hand, played a blinder.

“The biggest thing was a lack of cohesion and commitment. We made a huge mistake in giving the break a bit too much time and we underestimated them,” a dejected Wollaston said at the finish after winning the bunch kick and finishing second on the day.

“We also just came in unprepared for…

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