Seeing riders from Canyon-SRAM and Visma-Lease a Bike at the top of the results sheet of the opening time trial of the Simac Ladies Tour wasn’t a surprise – but instead of the names of Chloé Dygert and Riejanne Markus, it was Zoe Bäckstedt and Lieke Nooijen who were fastest against the clock. While 20-year-old Bäckstedt could celebrate her first pro victory, 23-year-old Nooijen was happy to confirm her time trial talent.
“A time trial on the first day is always a bit tense, but I'm super happy with how it went. Of course, seven seconds is a big gap on a 10-kilometre distance. The legs have spoken and Zoe is the deserved winner. I gave everything and am happy with second place,” said Nooijen.
There aren’t that many time trials on the women’s calendar, especially in the Women’s WorldTour. In March, Nooijen was third on stage 1 of the Tour de Normandie, behind Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) and her teammate Markus. At the Dutch ITT championships, Nooijen was again beaten by Markus while Van Dijk was out with an injury.
The 23-year-old then finished fourth in the opening ITT of the Giro d’Italia Women before winning the opening TTT, a sprint stage and the closing ITT of the Polish 2.2 race Princess Anna Vasa Tour, finally beating Markus against the clock. In the Simac Ladies Tour, Nooijen got the better of both Markus and Van Dijk, beating the latter by just 0.16 seconds. After her strong ITT performance, Wednesday’s stage 2 will be special for Nooijen as it starts in her hometown Coevorden.
“I'm really looking forward to that. The stages in this race are long, and I expect the wind to play a role. We came here with three good classification riders, so we'll see how it goes,” Nooijen promised a three-pronged team strategy for the rest of the race that consists of mainly flat stages, some of which pose the danger of echelons.
Lacking a strong sprinter, Visma-Lease a Bike can be expected to try to tear the race apart. In a strong team performance on stage 1, Anna Henderson finished sixth, 24 seconds down on Bäckstedt, with Markus just behind in seventh place a further five seconds behind.
