This year's Tour de France Femmes has been a challenging one for Belgian squad Lotto-Intermarché.
They headed to the Tour's Grand Départ in Lausanne with a young squad and six Tour debutants, with former speed skater Sandrine Tas taking a leadership role. However, things soon went awry during the Tour's opening days.
In only the second stage of the race, two of their number – Elisabeth Ebras and Marieke Meert – crashed out, while Sterre Vervloet was forced to abandon with heatstroke.
Dina Boels and Mexican racer Romina Hinojosa battled at the back of the race for 60km, making it to the line inside the time cut with just 1:41 to spare, though Boels left the race the next day.
"Yeah, the luck is not on our side this Tour," Lotto-Intermarché directeur sportif Zico Waeytens told Cyclingnews on Thursday.
"[Stage 2] wasn't our best day, but we also had a top 10 that day with Linda Riedmann. But it was just small things which didn't come out how we wanted and a bit of bad luck. That's cycling; that happens.
"It's a shame that it came in the Tour, the nicest race of the year, but it is what it is."
Hinojosa, always smiling this week, told Cyclingnews in Sisteron that she and her teammates have kept their spirits up, despite the early losses.
"We had a bit of a rough start for the team, but we managed to keep smiling," she said.
"I really think it has made a difference in how I approach every day. I have been getting stronger day by day, so definitely next time I’m here I will be better prepared, but for now I’m really happy with everything.
"We're definitely going to come better prepared, all of us, in the years to come, and we’re ending the Tour on a happy note."
That happy note Hinojosa refers to included a double outing in the breakaway on the Tour's queen stage to Mont Ventoux. Both she and Tas made the move, which the Belgian said was proof that, even though they've lost most of their teammates, they're not just staying in the race to make up the numbers.
"We’ve tried to bounce back and keep showing up every day and trying our best," Tas said.
"I think yesterday we showed that we’re not just here to finish, but we also want to show ourselves, and we’re happy we managed to."
The breakaway, which went clear with 75km to go on the queen stage, was eventually caught just before the final climb. It was a shame, Tas said, but she could still enjoy the famous ascent.
"It's really nice. Two of the three of us were in the break of the day. I had a really beautiful day. There were so many people cheering us on at the side of the road and the cooperation in the group was quite good," said Tas.
"Just a bit sad we got caught just before the bottom. It would have been nice to start Mont Ventoux in the breakaway, but all in all, just a good day.
"I took it a bit easier in the beginning, and then I started feeling better, so I put some pace again. I looked around a lot. I waved at people. I really tried to enjoy it because I think it’s an honour you get to do this climb in a race, and I wanted to be actively enjoying it, so I did."
Last year, it was Uno-X Mobility who took on the role of the team battling to finish against the odds after losing the majority of their riders. The Scandinavian squad made it to Châtel with just Teuntje Beekhuis and Linda Zanetti, while Lotto-Intermarché will at least head to Nice with a trio.
So what's it like tackling a week of racing with so few riders? And what adjustments need to be made?
"We sent back one soigneur, but we still have three riders, three soigneurs, a doctor, two sports directors, two mechanics – we have everything we need still," Waeytens said.
"So the basics are still the same. We work the same way. We just make less bottles! But the work, the preparation, everything is the same."
Hinojosa said that the vibes definitely change with so many riders missing, though there is one perk to the situation.
"It's quite different. You don’t see a lot of teammates, so sometimes it’s a bit like we’re missing each other, especially the vibe that more people create," Hinojosa said.
"But we've got to accept the reality and see the good things of it. That we each have a room for ourselves, so that’s a bit of a big thing, but still we miss them all.
"We have a really nice team, and it’s a shame, but we keep on fighting."
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