Lorena Wiebes has arrived in Paris and will compete in her first Olympic Video games because the chief of the Dutch staff within the girls’s highway race on August 4.
Wiebes is taken into account the quickest sprinter in girls’s highway biking, however she has additionally reworked herself into a robust climber in recent times. This has made her a favorite to win the gold medal, however she says she is heading into this weekend relaxed about her prospects.
“I’m actually wanting ahead to it. I don’t actually really feel the stress but, however that can come within the coming days. Possibly when we’ve had the final staff conferences, or when the lads have ridden their highway race. Then you’ll be able to style the Olympic Video games much more,” Wiebes stated in an interview with Wielerflits.
Wiebes stated that rising up, she participated in gymnastics, and so she has watched Olympic gymnasts equivalent to Simone Biles on TV throughout more moderen summer season Olympic Video games. Now that she is on the Video games herself, she stated she is taking a fair greater curiosity in different sports activities.
“I’ve all the time adopted the Olympic Video games, however I used to be probably not concerned in them. Now that I’ve been chosen for the summer season Video games myself, I’ve began to delve a bit deeper into it. You then begin to take a look at extra sports activities. Up to now, I used to be primarily all for gymnastics. I nonetheless take a look at it with admiration. That’s as a result of I did acrobatic gymnastics myself as a baby. I simply assume it’s lovely to look at. The explosiveness that these women have is wonderful. Particularly now with Simone Biles, I can actually take pleasure in it,” she stated.
She stated that she had been eyeing the Paris Olympic Video games since 2020, however that she realised she might be a medal contender when the ladies’s highway race route was introduced final yr.
The girls’s highway race is 158 kilometres lengthy with 1,700 metres of climbing and 9 named ascents, utilizing the identical run-out and ending circuits as the lads’s race and just one loop outdoors the town centre, by the Vallée de Chevreuse.
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The peloton will then end on two laps of 18.4km, together with the Côte de la butte Montmartre earlier than the flat end alongside the Seine previous the Quai d’Orsay and ending on the Pont d’Iéna.
“When the course was offered final autumn, it instantly appealed to me. I like a finale with laps by the town,” she stated.
“I instantly had the sensation in regards to the climb at Montmartre that this can be a place the place the race may be determined. It’s a pretty brief climb. Really, all of the climbs within the loop usually are not very tough.
“I ought to usually be capable to deal with them. After the reconnaissance of the course, I did acquire confidence in it, and from then on, I labored much more in direction of this race.”
Wiebes will spearhead a Dutch staff which additionally contains Tour de France winner Demi Vollering, who may additionally win a medal in Paris, former multi-time world champion and Olympic champion Marianne Vos, and three-time time trial world champion Ellen van Dijk.
Nationwide coach Loes Gunnewijk confirmed the choice to nominate Wiebes because the staff chief. If the race comes all the way down to a lowered group dash, and the Dutch staff are all current on the entrance, Wiebes could have the most effective lead-out within the area, and a transparent probability on the gold medal.
“It’s now commonplace observe that the nationwide coach presents us with our position and that we will take into consideration whether or not or not we would like it. After all, I did not want any time to consider it,” Wiebes informed Wielerflits.
“In the identical phone dialog, I indicated that I used to be up for it. After all, it turned extra of a precedence from that second on. Though I do attempt to work in direction of it as usually as attainable.”
Wiebes stated that she is used to dealing with staff management pressures in flat to hilly WorldTour racing with SD Worx-Protime, the place she usually shares that position with Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky, whereas her Dutch compatriot Vollering leads the staff in lots of the difficult one-days and mountainous stage races.
Actually, Wiebes and Kopecky, the reigning highway race World Champion, are sometimes a tough-to-beat duo as commerce teammates and have claimed many 1-2 victories all through the final two seasons, which means they know one another’s strengths and weaknesses very nicely. In Paris, they are going to be racing towards each other and it will likely be fascinating to see how they compete amongst their respective nationwide groups.
Wiebes has named the Italian staff with former World Champion Elisa Balsamo and Giro d’Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini and favourites, too.
“My purpose is to hold on to it so long as attainable. I see Lotte as one of many primary opponents in that, particularly as a result of the course is considerably harking back to the road circuit of the World Championship in Glasgow, with twists and turns, the place she received the world title final yr,” Wiebes stated.
“The Italian block can also be very robust. The competitors is sort of huge anyway. Every part simply has to fall into place on Sunday. I could have the right preparation now, however so much can nonetheless go flawed.”
If something does go flawed, Wiebes stated the Dutch staff comes ready with a couple of card to play with Vollering, Vos, and Van Dijk, and any certainly one of them may win a medal.
“You possibly can’t simply have a plan A. We now have to have a number of plans. For me, it needs to be an ideal race that ends in a dash. However alongside the way in which, something can go flawed. A lot can occur,” she stated.
“That is why it is nice that we’ve a number of women with Demi and Marianne who can end the match. We are able to play a number of trump playing cards, and we’ve just one primary purpose: Profitable gold with the Netherlands.”
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