Daria Pikulik scored her eighth podium of the season by sprinting to second place behind Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostlNL) on stage 2 of the Baloise Ladies Tour in Belgium,
The 27-year-old proved herself one of the fastest in the field at the end of a 126.8km stage around Zulte which included two ascents of the cobbled climb in Knokke-Heist followed by laps of a flat finishing circuit.
“We are closer to victory so it’s good we can always try and do our best,” Pikulik said. “This is cycling, everything can happen if you believe and I believe in my team so we will try again tomorrow.”
Pikulik was guided to the finale by her ever-confident lead-out train, including her sister Wiktoria, Henrietta Christie, Marit Raaijmakers, Alice Wood, and Audrey Cordon-Ragot. The result marks Pikulik’s return to where she expects to be after the Pole was held up by a crash on stage one where she eventually moved her way through the peloton to finish fifth.
“We had all the girls in front to do our lead-out, which was really good,” Pikulik explains. “We missed a little bit of the position in the final kilometer so I had to sprint early but we can still be happy about how we did today compared to yesterday’s bad luck.”
The racing continues tomorrow as the team takes on another bumpy road stage before an evening 11 km time trial.
“Finishing second today is good and I’m happy about the job that we did, the girls were amazing.”
Baloise Ladies Tour stage 2 results
1 KOOL Charlotte – Team dsm-firmenich PostlNL 3:02:53
2 PIKULIK Daria – Human Powered Health ”
3 FIORIN Sara – UAE Team ADQ ”
4 SANGUINETI Ilaria – Lidl-Trek ”
5 HENTTALA Lotta – EF Education-Cannondale ”
6 BARBIERI Rachele – Team dsm-firmenich PostlNL ”
7 VAN DER WOLF Babette – Lifeplus Wahoo ”
8 WIEBES Lorena – Team SD Worx – Protime ”
9 DE JONG Thalita – Lotto Dstny Ladies ”
10 BRAAM Danique – Chevalmeire ”
