Juliette Labous climbs to strong 3rd at Giro dell’Emilia

A new race on the calendar for our Women’s program saw the team battle it out on the famous San Luca climb, where Juliette Labous took a strong third place.

With a flat 90 kilometres followed by two ascents of the San Luca climb, all eyes were on the finale. Despite that, numerous attacks were made but the Team dsm-firmenich squad kept their calm, aiming to save as much energy as possible and keep Labous safe ahead of the finale. With the attackers caught, there was unfortunately a crash in the bunch which saw Francesca Barale and Elise Uijen held up, and although they could return to the bunch, the high pace meant they had already spent a lot of energy. On the first ascent a high pace exploded the bunch and a group of around 12 riders went clear, including Labous. Things stayed together for the last climb, where it was rider against rider. Labous dug deep on the steep slopes, giving everything to the line to take third place.

Labous expressed: “It was quite a fast race actually, and the bunch was quite nervous. We stayed towards or at the front for most of the day and the girls did a good job looking after me. Unfortunately, there was a crash before the climb and Elise and Francesca were stuck behind it. The rest of the girls took care of my positioning and it was perfect. I just followed for the first lap and then on the last lap I started with the attacks. Ludwig countered with Cavalli and I couldn’t follow. I don’t have any regrets, it was just an honest finish and they were stronger in the front. I’m happy with the result and motivated for Tuesday where we will try our best to go for an even better result.”

Team dsm-firmenich coach Albert Timmer added: “It was quite a straightforward day parcours wise and the girls did a really good job of keeping Juliette safe ahead of the climbs. Unfortunately, Elise and Francesca were involved in a crash around ten kilometres before the climb and although they could get back, they had spent a lot of energy chasing. On the two ascents of San Luca, Juliette did her best and did what she could, coming away with a nice third place for us in the end.”