2018 La Course Results & Recap
2018 La Course is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Van Vleuten doubles at La Course by the Tour de France
By Clara Beard
At the very last second, Annemiek van Vleuten found an extra bit of strength to pinch victory from Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolman) after a long pursuit off the col de la Colombiere. The world time trial champion put her skills to good use after van der Breggen’s assault on the final climb, keeping the Olympic champion with in a few seconds and timing her sprint to the finish at Le Grand Bornard to defend her La Course title for a second year.
“It was unbelievable. With 300metres to go I still thought I would get second and then I saw her dying. To win like this...it was a tough ride, but beautiful,” van Vleuten told her press officer. “The gap going into the descent was really small and Anna is also a really good descender, but I always keep believing and keep on thinking that anything is possible and never give up. That was really important today. This win is really beautiful, the second time at La Course and especially coming only two days after winning the Giro Rosa, but to win this race in this way is really special and high up on my list of memorable wins.”
South Africa's Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo–Bigla) finished third and teammate Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig held on her advantage from a mid-race solo breakaway to finish fourth.
“Every girl can be proud of that performance today, it was an amazing show from the team,” Moolman-Pasio said to her team’s media. “That was a courageous attack by Cille and it caught everyone off guard. We’re all happy with the podium and the way we executed the race is getting such a good response. I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t reward the team with a win but for us, it’s all about the development of our athletes and Cille has taken another step up this year and we’ve shown we’re successful in developing brave riders. Maybe we don’t win all the races but we make a show.”
After 30 kilometres of attacks, the break of the day finally came on the Côte de Saint-Jean-de-Sixt, when Ma?gorzata Jasi?ska (Movistar Team) escaped with Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo Bigla), Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) and Leah Thomas (UnitedHealthcare). The breakaway started to crack under Thomas’ pace on the Col de Romme, when Uttrup Ludwig attacked out of the peloton and bridged across to Thomas, now riding solo at the front. Thomas couldn’t respond, leaving the Danish youngster to forge ahead alone gaining about a minute on the reduced field.
At the start of the Colombière, the race favorites, van Vleuten, van der Breggen and Moolman-Pasio started off in pursuit. Once they caught Uttrup Ludwig, Moolman-Pasio launched a counter attack, however it wasn’t strong enough to shake the two Dutch riders and van der Breggen countered. Her move dropped the two rivals, but the Boels Dolman rider couldn’t quite shake off van Vleuten, who came back strong at the tail end of the race to take the win.
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