It was a case of so near, yet so far for Riejanne Markus and Lidl-Trek on stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes; the Dutchwoman caught just 450 metres from the line in Geneva before Elisa Balsamo sprinted to second place behind the fastest sprinter in the world, Lorena Wiebes.
Markus, twice a Dutch time trial champion, launched her move 39km from the finish of the stage, her effort being the German squad's second attack of the stage after Amanda Spratt jumped clear in a five-rider move 8km earlier.
It was all part of Lidl-Trek's strategy to try and shake things up and put Wiebes' SD Worx-Protime squad off their stride. It almost worked out, too, even if Markus' initial goal wasn't to solo to victory.
"That was actually the goal when I attacked," she told Cyclingnews at the finish, referring to that 'beat Wiebes' plan.
"My teammate Amanda Spratt was in the attack before, and then I just thought it's a super nice moment to counter. I did, and I got away alone, but then it was 40km to go, so it was a pretty long way. But I felt really good, and I thought to just keep a nice steady pace and to just give it a try.
"I never expected to come this close actually, but we wanted to try and make them suffer a bit, and I think we succeeded in that."
Markus' teammate Lucinda Brand noted that the team were also looking at different scenarios to get a result, rather than waiting for the bunch sprint and hoping for the best against a "sprinter from a different planet", as she described Wiebes.
"As a team, we planned to try to go for a victory in different scenarios. I think we can look back very proudly on today's stage, and we can take that to the next stages," she said.
"We all know that Elisa is a really good sprinter, but if there is another sprinter from a different planet, it's hard to beat her, and we just need to be honest about that.
"We want the stage win, and there are more ways than just sprinting, so we try to find our ways for that."
They came closer than expected on stage 2, even if, once Markus was caught, there was little doubt over who would cross the line first in the resulting sprint finish.
In the end, Wiebes, as ever, dominated the final run to the line. There was one small consolation for Markus and Lidl-Trek, however, as the 31-year-old came away with the day's combativity prize. Her long ride off the front was a good test ahead of Tuesday's time trial in Dijon, too.
"At 1km to go, I still heard a gap of 15 seconds and I don't know if it was correct, but that's what they told me. So then I thought, 'Oh, they're still not here,' so maybe... Then they came with so much speed from behind. I was really close, but not close enough. We will try again tomorrow," Markus said.
"I really hope that I keep the legs like this because maybe then I can have a nice day on Tuesday as well."
Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.
