Team secures first ever WorldTour jersey on Women's Tour final day

WORDS: REBECCA BLAND
IMAGES: HONOR ELLIOTT

The Women's Tour drew to a close in the historic city of Oxford today, with Maike van der Duin securing victory in the sprints competition – the team's first win in a WorldTour stage race classification.

Stage 6 began in reasonably relaxed fashion, with the peloton staying together for the first part of the race.

Then, just before the 50km mark, a large bunch broke free, including some of the GC contenders. We had Jesse representing us in this group, but the gap never reached further than 30 seconds, with the main ambition being GC riders chasing bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint.

The bunch was subsequently caught, and attacks flew in the second half of the race with a more coherent breakaway eventually forming with three riders.

This attack was caught in the closing kilometres, allowing for the expected mass sprint finish.

The team worked well to lead out Maike, who sprinted to seventh place. Maike's dominance in the sprint classification this week has been evident since day one, when she initially took the jersey and held onto it throughout.

Showing her prowess against some of the world's best sprinters isn't a bad way to kick off a stage race career, and winning this jersey will undoubtedly build up Maike’s confidence going into the rest of the season.

The entire team has worked brilliantly together this week, with the sprint jersey victory demonstrating the quality of the riders we have on this squad, and the value of a happy team atmosphere.

Highlights from today's stage will be available on ITV4 at 8pm.