When Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) made her unsuccessful charge for overall glory at the Tour de France Femmes up the Col du Glandon, it wasn’t yellow jersey clad Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) that was able to respond to her pivotal attack, or any of the other pre-race GC favourites, but Pauliena Rooijakkers.
Rooijakkers snapped onto her compatriot's wheel 2.4km from the crest of the hors categorie climb, and held onto it for nearly all of the final 60km, taking an incredible second place up Alpe d’Huez behind Vollering that moved her into third overall and completed a ‘dream’ week for Fenix-Deceuninck.
The result may have been a surprise for many, including Rooijakkers, but sports director Michel Cornelisse always kept the faith.
“Those climbs [Col du Glandon and Alpe d’Huez] are fitting Pauliena very well, she showed already at the Giro, on the Blockhaus twice, that those climbs are very good for her,” the sports director told Cyclingnews after the penultimate stage to Le Grand-Bornand.
The 31-year-old Dutch rider headed into the final stage in seventh overall, however, she wasn’t expected to land herself on the overall podium, with her previous best GC results coming at last month’s Giro d’Italia Women with fourth and the 2022 Itzulia Women, where she was second to Vollering.
But with the hyper-aggressive Belgian team showing their blue jerseys prominently in the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, as they did last year, and Rooijakkers was spurred on to the climbing performance of her life.
“We had a big goal of the top five, so to be on the podium we can be really happy as a team that we achieved that,” said Rooijakkers after the final stage.
She added third place overall to a Puck Pieterse stage win and the 22-year-old's victory in the best young rider’s classification.
“It was amazing, if you told us this before the Tour de France, it’s a well-known story but third in the overall, winning a stage, winning the white jersey and being so strong in the race, we would not believe it. It’s a dream for us,” Cornelisse told Cyclingnews at the team bus, referring to the stunning debut of Pieterse too.
Rooijakkers played the tactical battle throughout the final having stayed with Vollering over Glandon, across the valley and up almost all of the 13.8km Alpe d’Huez climb. However, an all-out descent also saw the Fenix-Deceuninck rider put on the limit in the valley, unable and unauthorised to help Vollering as much as she could have.
“No, from the car they said to sit in her wheel but I was also suffering in her wheel. I tried to attack but there was not a lot in my legs anymore so I was happy to stick on,” said Rooijakkers who made a late move for glory when they reached the ski resort.
“That’s why I was sitting in her wheel a lot because I didn’t want to blow myself up a bit and I wanted to play the game. She was fighting really for yellow and I was just holding on, otherwise, I’d maybe park myself on Alpe d’Huez and I didn’t want to let that happen.”
In her emotional post-race conference, Vollering revealed the struggle she had when Rooijakkers stopped helping her due to team orders. But Fenix-Deceuninck also said that Vollering’s downhill push off of Glandon didn’t play into her favour.
“The problem was that Demi Vollering went full gas in the downhill and she killed Pauliena and also the girl from Arkea [Cavallard],” said Cornelisse.
“If she goes a little bit slower then we could have gone with three in the valley and worked together. Then I could have said ‘OK help her’ but if she’s dropped, then we have nothing, so it was maybe a little mistake from Demi that she went full gas and we had no other choice but to follow because if we get dropped then we are not on the podium.”
Cornelisse had high praise for team boss Phillip Roodhooft for his part in ensuring the men’s Alpecin-Deceuninck and Fenix-Deceuninck teams have became more equal. A two-week altitude camp in the Alps laid the foundations for the squad’s stunning week of performances.
“If you see this team, coming from two years ago, that man with the blue shirt is the big boss,” Cornelisse said as he pointed out Roodhooft by the bus.
“He believes in the team, he invests a lot in the team, because we spent 14 days in La Plagne for the training camp and that’s not cheap but the big boss believes in it and we are very thankful for that.”
“This team is really professional, even doing the altitude camp together with the food and all the little things we work on,” concurred Rooijakkers who joined from Canyon-SRAM after 2023. “There’s no separation with the men’s and the women’s teams, they are both equal.
“So we take the good stuff from them and they also take the good stuff from us and with the coaches, everything, it’s all equal and I think that makes a really big difference and also the belief from this team helps a lot.”
Yara Kastelijn lit the fire for Fenix-Deceuninck at the Tour last year with a magic solo win into Rodez. This season, that flame is only burning brighter through young trailblazer Pieterse – who won into Liège on stage 4 and took 11th overall – and Rooijakkers, the surprise podium package who has found her best legs into her 30s.
Fenix-Deceuninck will be back with ambition again in 2025, and Cornelisse believes his two stars from this year could play out the same role for some time.
“You see how happy the girls are and you see they are only getting better and better because we have Pauliena and Puck, so for next year we come back and we try for more.”
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