Megan Jastrab 5th on punchy opening stage in Scandinavia

The opening stage at the Tour of Scandinavia saw a punchy finish circuit where Megan Jastrab survived the climbs well and sprinted to a good fifth place finish.

Rolling out from Mysen in the afternoon, it was a relatively steady state of affairs for the majority of the stage despite the earliest attackers being brought back and a new break forming out front. With all Team dsm-firmenich riders in the bunch, focus remained on saving energy for what would be a tough final. After some early positioning work by the team, Esmée Peperkamp upped the pace and Franziska Koch used her classics skills to keep Jastrab and Eglantine Rayer towards the front as they hit the main climb on the circuit for the first time.

Climbing brilliantly, Jastrab was able to stamp on the pedals and made an initial elite front group of around 15 riders before the attacks started once more. A slowing in pace saw a group with Koch and Rayer return, before they heard the bell and were immediately onto the climb again. This time a serious pace was set and a duo managed to escape and the peloton split, but the Team dsm-firmenich riders didn’t panic and managed to return to the peloton on the descent. Uttrup Ludwig was solo out front at this point and heading under the flamme rouge the gap was in the balance, but she was just caught in the final 25 metres, where Jastrab showed her fast finish to get up and take fifth place; and move into the best young rider’s jersey.

Speaking after the stage Jastrab said: “We went into today with the goal of positioning Eglantine and myself into the circuit as fresh as possible. Esmée and Franzi were incredible with this job and made sure we were safe and in the best spot going into the first climb. We knew it was going to be hard on the climb as it was pretty steep, but both Eglantine and I knew we needed to fight and see what we were capable of. I am happy with my form at the moment and to be able to go over the top with the front group, but it is extremely frustrating to mess up in the final and miss the podium. After a rough summer block of racing with a lot of setbacks, it was still a good feeling to be at the front of the bike race again. I’m looking forward to taking on the next four days of racing with the team!”

Team dsm-firmenich coach Kelvin Dekker added: “We had two main objectives today; making sure that Megan could go for a good result and that Eglantine could stay in the front group and not lose any time. We knew that the most important part was the lead in to the local laps. We had a long day in the saddle before then and I think we timed it perfectly with moving up in time. Esmée did a massive pull going into the laps and then Franzi took over and positioned Megan and Eglantine perfectly. Megan was really strong and it was good to see her have this level and survive the first climb in the group of 15 and Eglantine come back and survive the second one. In the sprint we made a few small mistakes but in the end Megan could take fifth which is a nice result. We of course always hope to win or podium but today we can be happy with that and it was good that Eglantine didn’t lose any time either.”