Het Wilhelmus klinkt @ColduVam voor 🥇Ilse Pluimers🇳🇱 @KNWU na het winnen van de Europese titel bij de vrouwen U23 @UEC_cycling. #Drenthe2023 #Opfietse
New European U23 Champion Ilse Pluimers: "Three kilometers from the end I thought, it's all or nothing"
CyclingSaturday, 23 September 2023 at 04:00
Ilse Pluimers has become European champion for the second time after she already became European champion among the juniors in Alkmaar in 2019, and was able to repeat the same trick four years later among the U23s, where she was the strongest on the VAM-berg in Drenthe.
That's what the Dutch rider wished in the flash interview after her won race. "It's really great. And in my own country it is the best, because my whole family is there too. A European Championship in your own country is apparently a good experience. That's really fantastic."
After 108 kilometers of racing on the roads of Drenthe, Pluimers was the first to cross the line. "It was a quiet race in the beginning with a lot of waiting, because everyone knew it would be a tough race. When Zoe Backstedt attacked, Maike was able to join in very well. And when she had to let go, we closed the gap. Then the attacks started and I was on the right side."
That was not enough for Pluimers: she decided to attack again. "I then started attacking again, because I thought I couldn't win. Then Anna came along and I thought 'Oh shit, she's a climber'. I stayed in her wheel and at the end I was able to finish it."
"I felt really strong today, but I had already done a lot of work for the team. Three kilometers from the end I thought, it's all or nothing... That's what my brother said, that I had to make an attack like that and it finally worked," she concluded.
Read also
claps 0visitors 95
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Most of these have nothing to do with rider safety or are completely unachievablevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Depends on how fast the Cipressa would be beforehand and in what condition Philipsen would bevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Some things sound crazy until they aren't, what if he's actually right? 🤷vappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Why make a comment to state the obvious? Of course MvdP is much better at CX than Pogacar, does anyone doubt that But that wasn't his pointvappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- If you look at road alone obvi Pogacar is the better rider. But maybe MVDP is the better overall rider since he can win in three plus disciplines?mobk23-12-2024
- Correction on 2021 Olympics. It was mainly the Dutch ladies who didn’t know who was leading the race. Other teams like the Germans and Italians knew that Kiesenhofer was out front.mobk23-12-2024
- A champion turning into a sore loser. Or is he on coke again?
UltimateOpportunist23-12-2024 - If you look at the major races they’ve both been in, van der Poel had the early edge as lately Pogacar has had the advantage. It’s all on procyclingstats.RidesHills23-12-2024
- I wouldn’t assume Tadej can’t win at cross. He did a cross race, not a World Cup, a few years ago and crushed the field. It was a minor race. But he can win anywhere.mij23-12-2024
- I wonder what would happen if Pogacar attacked on the Cipressa instead of the Poggio in San Remo? Would MvdPoel still be able to follow?Ride197423-12-2024