After mental dip, all training finally pays for ‘Killer’ Mischa Bredewold

‘Free and trust’ – that was stated on the note that Mischa Bredewold had stuck on the wheel of her bike prior to the Amstel Gold Race. « Those two words, » she said afterwards, « felt like the words I needed. »

She was not comfortable in it for the last few weeks, « Bredewold said: Despite hard training in the winter, the results were disappointing this spring. So two days before the Gold Race « Aan De Bel » she rang the team leader of her team SD Worx. He reassured her: soon or later her work would pay off.

He was right. Last Sunday, Bredewold raced to the most beautiful victory in her career: win in the Amstel Gold Race, ‘s Lands Only cycling classic. At the last climb of the Cauberg, she placed a demarrage that would be decisive – and only crossed the line as a winner. « She’s really a killer, » Stam said afterwards with the team bus.

Driver ‘From Second Line’

For the first time this season, the women’s platoon at the Amstel Gold Race was at full war strength. Almost all top rods were at the start: the world champion (Lotte Kopecky), the Olympic champion (Kristen FaulKner), the winner of the Tour de France (Kasia Niewiadoma), the best classic rider (Elisa Longo Borghini), the best Sprintster stardster (Lorena) and the Lorenaster stardar (Lorena) and the Lorenaster stardar (Lorena) and the Lorenaster’s ststeraster.

Yet it was a driver ‘from the second line’, as her team leader Stam said afterwards, who ran away with the win. Mischa Bredewold (24) from Amersfoort is known as talented and ambitious, she already became European champion on the road, but she was not among the absolute top of the women’s square so far. With her victory in the Amstel Gold Race, she makes a big step in that direction.

The fact that Bredewold could win also illustrates something else: the hegemony of Dutch riders in international women’s cycling. The entire stage was Dutch: Ellen van Dijk (38) was second, Puck Pieterse (22) third. Half of the top twenty in the final result consisted of Dutch riders. It seemed for a moment for forgotten after the blamage at the World Cycling World Cup in Zurich last year, but this Amstel Gold Race underlined it again: the Netherlands is still the strongest nation in women’s cycling.

Fracture in the peloton

After a rather matt classic spring, Sunday was finally a course for the women, who traditionally start in the Gold Race before the men. A crucial moment in the race was a break that originated at 47 kilometers in the peloton – and grew into a hole of almost two minutes. Behind the fracture there were almost all top rods, before the break, Bredewold was with two teammates. The favorites no longer succeeded in returning. Or they no longer tried: almost all top teams had one or more riders in the first piece of platoon.

At the foot of the last of four climbs from the Cauberg, a leading group of five riders was left of that half platoon – three of whom from the Netherlands. Bredewold, knowing that she would never win in a sprint. The other refugees could no longer raise her.

« Really bizarre, » the winner called her victory after journalists in the press room. When she switched on her phone after the finish, she said, the « almost stuck » of all the messages she had received. « This victory is at the top of my list. » The scorched beer of the main sponsor in front of her on the table, Bredewold left untouched.

Mental dip

She had been looking for the good feeling for weeks, Bredewold said. The heavy training work of the winter had not paid off the entire spring. Her thirteenth place in the Tour of Flanders (« a very big goal ») was not proper – and that caused « frustration. »

What also played a role in her mental dip: her role within the team. After the departure of leaders Demi Volling, she was « certainly a place passed on » in the SD Worx hierarchy, says Bredewold: she is now seen as one of the supporting riders in the team – which is the strongest of the women’s peloton anyway. « And that is pretty tough. I had to calibrate. »

When she rode again last Friday, this time in the Brabantse Pijl (twentieth), Bredewold rang the bell – after which the conversation followed with her team leader. A psychologist also joined that conversation. « And he said: also think about what you can stick on the steering wheel. » That became the conscious sticker.

Since the return of the Gold Race on the women’s calendar in 2017, six of the eight editions have now been won by Dutch riders. That is a lot, even for a classic on your own soil – and the different types of winners (climbers, sprinters, punchers and time drivers as Bredewold) show how strong Dutch women’s cycling is in width.

This edition of the Gold Race was also a small triumph for the ‘gang of the Amerongse Berg’, as Bredewold said jokingly afterwards. Van Dijk, Pieterse and all three of them live in the province of Utrecht – Bredewold and Pieterse are friends and training buddies.

« We can regularly be found on the Lekdijk and the Amerongse Berg, » said Bredewold. « We are stubborn, stay on the flat living and do not leave for Spain, like many riders. » Chinning: « Apparently with a lot of training on the flat you can also drive hard De Cauberg. »

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