Emma Norsgaard continues her quest to not be seen as a sprinter by going on a long escapade in the Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria, but sadly for her, her breakaway was gobbled up on Areitio, before they even got to the first side of Goiuria which is the main climb of the day, climbed from two different sides.
On the first one a significant selection was made, including a couple from Movistar (Meijering and Aalerud), Jayco (Santesteban and Žigart), AG (Moolman-Pasio and Ghekiere) plus a few other useful climbers like Alice Maria Arzuffi, Claire Steels and the in-form Ella Wyllie. On the second time, which is a very inconsistent ramp with two really steep steps in it, Anna Kiesenhofer was chasing on but just before she could get there Ash Moolman-Pasio attacked and opened up a big gap which was only able to be bridged by a persistent climb by local favourite Ane Santesteban.
On the way down a sense of inevitability washed over me; I do quite like Ash, but Ane has not won a race in a decade (her only career win in fact) and with it being a local race those that were out there to see it were firmly in her corner. Claire Steels managed to extricate herself from the chasing group and even briefly got into contact with the lead duo as they played games into the final kilometre... but in the end it had taken her all her effort to get there and when they settled the sprint Steels was dropped once more; however, the sense of inevitability was prescient - unfortunately as you may be aware, Ane Santesteban is Basque, and she sprints rather like your typical Basque cyclist, which is to say, she doesn't. And the wait sadly goes on.
On the first one a significant selection was made, including a couple from Movistar (Meijering and Aalerud), Jayco (Santesteban and Žigart), AG (Moolman-Pasio and Ghekiere) plus a few other useful climbers like Alice Maria Arzuffi, Claire Steels and the in-form Ella Wyllie. On the second time, which is a very inconsistent ramp with two really steep steps in it, Anna Kiesenhofer was chasing on but just before she could get there Ash Moolman-Pasio attacked and opened up a big gap which was only able to be bridged by a persistent climb by local favourite Ane Santesteban.
On the way down a sense of inevitability washed over me; I do quite like Ash, but Ane has not won a race in a decade (her only career win in fact) and with it being a local race those that were out there to see it were firmly in her corner. Claire Steels managed to extricate herself from the chasing group and even briefly got into contact with the lead duo as they played games into the final kilometre... but in the end it had taken her all her effort to get there and when they settled the sprint Steels was dropped once more; however, the sense of inevitability was prescient - unfortunately as you may be aware, Ane Santesteban is Basque, and she sprints rather like your typical Basque cyclist, which is to say, she doesn't. And the wait sadly goes on.