Willock, Numainville look for continued Euro success

Team TIBCO/To the Top heads into the six-stage Profile Ladies Tour of Holland starting Sept. 7with the momentum of a strong performance in the Plouay World Cup behind them. “Plouay was a super good race from the team,” said Team TIBCO European Director Angela van Smoorenberg. “We were in breakaways all day, and three riders finished in the top 20, including (Canadian) Erinne Willock’s 5th place.”

Willock made her move to the front of the race on the second lap, after teammate Megan Guarnier had a go at stirring the pot on lap one. “Erinne followed a move that started as three riders and eventually became the winning move,” van Smoorenberg said. Willock showed her class by staying with the top riders in the world, finishing alone in 5th place, 0:49 behind race winner and World Cup overall champion Annemiek Van Vleuten (Nederland Bloeit).
Joelle Numainville, another Canadian on the TIBCO team, sprinted to 8th place from the small chase group that finished 5:45 the winner. Guarnier finished 18th in the same group as Numainville. van Smoorenberg sees a lot of positives coming out of the Plouay performance, and is looking to build off that for Holland. “Holland is an almost flat race but the bigger factor to deal with there is the weather,” she said. “Sometimes the wind is pretty strong and can play a significant factor in the outcome of the race.”
The second day offers up a 20km time trial, and the final stage rolls into the hills in the south of Holland. Once again, the peloton will feature the top riders in the world.
“For sure all these things together will make for an interesting race,” she said. “But the team that we have here has experience with all these factors. We have riders for all kinds of tactics; riders who can get in breaks, and who are good for bunch sprints.”

Team TIBCO/To the Top for the Profile Tour of Holland
Megan Guarnier, USA
Emma Mackie, AUS
Joelle Numainville, CAN
Samantha Schneider, USA
Carmen Small, USA
Erinne Willock, CAN