Neve Bradbury impresses with attackive ride on Jebel Hafeet: "I wanted to be in the top three, and I'm happy that I could actually do it"
Cycling
What do Neve Bradbury and Jay Vine have in common? They're both 2020 Zwift Academy winners. And while Vine has already established himself as one of the top climbers in the men's peloton, the road to glory for seven years younger Bradbury was not so straightforward, despite finishing tenth at the 2022 Giro d'Italia Donne.
The 21-year-old reminded herself to the public with a stand-out performance on the Jebel Hafeet during third stage of UAE Tour. "I wanted to be in the top three, and I'm happy that I could actually do it," the 21-year-old smiled in an interview with Cyclingnews after arriving second on the day, just behind world champion Lotte Kopecky.
For a moment she was even leading the race alone after a fierce attack. "It was more spur of the moment," Bradbury said about her attack. "I was waiting for some other riders to attack before because I felt I was at my limit at the start of the climb, so I was expecting something to happen, but then nothing happened. I just gave it a crack."
"I just wanted to get a good run-in to the finish, maybe if she wasn't quite so strong I could have come to the corner first," said Bradbury who is now 13 seconds behind Kopecky in the general classification. The final stage is expected to be one for the sprinters again, so this is likely to be also the final result for Bradbury.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024