It was a return to the women’s WorldTour that Trek-Segafredo will likely remember for some time.
Not just having to contend with the added stress and complications of navigating the rules of bike racing during a global pandemic, but thieves socially distanced the squad from six Emondas, lifting them from through the roof of the team’s truck the night before the race.
Spares were found, though, with Ellen van Dijk forced to ride her male Trek-Segafredo stablemate Koen de Kort’s bike.
“Sorry Koen, it’s a little bit dirty, I’ll make sure it’s cleaned, I hope someone will do that for me…” Van Dijk said after the race.
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“This morning was a bit stressful, of course, with the stolen bikes, really sh*t, but Koen’s bike was not a problem.”
Elisa Longo Borghini was Trek-Segafredo’s best-placed finisher in fifth place, coming in two minutes behind Annemiek van Vleuten.
Lizzie Deignan was caught up in a crash, the 2016 Strade Bianche winner out of contention, eventually rolling over the line in 37th, nearly 12 minutes down.
“We lost Lizzie in a crash, that was part of the bad luck of today,” Longo Borghini said. “The break survived and then Annemiek just went…we were unable to follow her…the last part was really hot and kind of extreme.”
Jumbo-Visma’s Wout Van Aert won the men’s race, beating Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) and Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in testing conditions where the temperatures were around the mid-thirties and the dust kicked up as the gravel sectors blurred rider’s vision.
Trek-Segafredo’s men’s team fared less well than the women, their best-placed rider being Giulio Ciccone in 32nd.
