Being in the thick of the action for much of La Flèche Wallonne Femmes could not stop Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) from soaring to a top ten finish on the Mur de Huy on Wednesday - a standout result which the Dutchwoman said she had not expected after racing so hard from the word go.
Rooijakkers was an early breakaway alongside Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) and attacked again in the last 10km. After these exploits, she entered the Mur de Huy in 22nd position but passed rider after rider to cross the line in sixth place.
“On the final climb, I took my own pace. Finishing sixth surprised me after the efforts I did. I know I’m in a good shape, but I’m very happy with the result,” Rooijakkers told Cyclingnews.
Before her strong finishing effort, Rooijakkers had spent 28km in the chase with Brown, jumping after the Australian when she attacked over the top of the Côte d’Ereffe. Although they were never more than 45 seconds ahead of the peloton, not being in the bunch was an advantage in itself on the first ascent of the Mur de Huy.
“I know she is a very strong rider and hoped that some more riders would go with me. After that we could survive the first time up the Mur de Huy ‘easy’ in front,” she explained.
16km from the finish, Brown and Rooijakkers were back in the peloton after having been just a handful of seconds ahead for some time. Two riders from the early breakaway were still in front – and Rooijakkers made a move on the top of the Côte d’Ereffe again, this time going on the chase alone.
“I had hoped that the race would open up more and the favourites would also attack,” the 30-year-old said.
She did pass Sara Martín (Movistar Team) and Julie Van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal) just inside 10km to go, and eventually other riders reacted: Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) jumped across to Rooijakkers while Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Mareille Meijering (Movistar Team), and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) also tried to bridge to the front.
Longo Borghini and eventually Kopecky made it across, but the peloton was on their heels and closed the gap.
After a good performance in the mid-week Flèche Wallonne, Rooijakkers is now looking forward to the finale of the Classics season, Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
“It is the race that suits me the best of all the Classics. I hope it will be a hard race. The goal is always to win with the team, but in this shape, I will go for a podium spot,” Rooijakkers promised to aim high on Sunday.
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Spring Classics- including reporting, breaking news and analysis from Liège-Bastogne-Liège and more. Find out more.
