Podium for Mirre Knaven in GP Ecostruct

Mirre Knaven has sprinted to her first UCI podium in the GP Ecostruct/Thomson/Security Tools today. In the 138,8-kilometre-long race with start and finish in Schellebelle, Belgium, Mirre sprinted to a third place. It’s her first podium in only her fourth UCI elite race ever.

“I am very happy of course,” said the only 18-year-old Dutch rider after the finish. “This is my first podium as a first-year elite rider and that is really nice. I felt amazingly good so I thought I'd go for that sprint. That wasn't quite the plan. I wanted to be at the front and go along with attacks. We only noticed that that was not going to work, so it became the sprint. The atmosphere is good within the team and after Julia's win last week I couldn't stay behind."

In France there was another good result for Gaia Masetti. The Italian who won La Classique Morbihan on Friday sprinted to seventh today in GP du Morbihan Femmes.

“We rode really well as a team again today,” Gaia reacted. “The finish would suit me well so I was the one who should finish it off. At 45 kilometers from the line Grace Brown attacked. We tried to get other teams to work with us but no one did and Grace stayed away. I think that when we would have had some help the final would be different. But all in all, I am really happy with this weekend after first and now seventh place. I want to thank the girls, the staff and Servais in the car for the great opportunity I got this weekend.”

In southern France our juniors raced the Tour du Gévaudan, a very hard climber’s race with finish on the Montée Laurent Jalabert in Mende. Lore De Schepper and Ella Heremans finished just outside the top ten in the first stage. The team is fifth in the team’s classification. Tomorrow the UCI junior-women’s Nations Cup ends with stage two to a flatter finish in Mende.