"I want to be at the front and not just holding onto the nearest wheel for dear life" - Katarzyna Niewiadoma aims high at Omloop
Cycling
2024 Tour de France Femmes winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma will continue her season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad WE this weekend. As we know the Polish rider, she won't just sit back on the cobbled sectors and will surely try get stuck in the thick of battle.
"I love Classic racing. The quicker I can start them, the better I can get for my target races. Nieuwsblad is very hard, especially in the last two hours. It is just all out on every sector and climbs, and you only have the descents to recover. This kind of racing forces you to switch into the fighting mindset needed for the whole spring," she said in a race preview on CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto team website.
Last year, Niewiadoma placed 7th after she couldn't quite keep up with the pace on the iconic Muur van Geraardsbergen. Later that year, she would go on to win La Fleche Wallonne and Tour de France Femmes, so this defeat during the Opening Weekend is certainly the least of her worries.
Yet the always very competitive lady will once again shoot for victory in Ninove this year. "I always want to do my best and with that, there are some ambitions associated. From past editions, you can see that the winner is decided on the Muur, so I want to get over it in the front – powering through and not just holding onto the nearest wheel for dear life," she said.
Even though her season start at Volta a Comunitat Valenciana was for from ideal with just 18th place overall. "It was an adjustment to go from winter training into full gas efforts at the start of stage one in Valenciana, but I was getting better with each day. Having two weeks between the last stage and Nieuwsblad has allowed me to fine-tune all the little details that needed more attention."
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