Lily Williams placed tenth in the stage 5 time trial at the Simac Ladies Tour to consolidate ninth position overall going into tomorrow’s gravel-laden final stage.
“I’m super happy with the result. I’ve always enjoyed TT’ing, and I have made some progress in the past 12 months,” the 31-year-old said afterwards. “For the GC, our small but mighty team have really helped me a lot already, and I trust that we can have another good stage tomorrow.”
Recent testing at the Flemish Cycling Centre Eddy Merckx, Ghent, was behind her best finish to date in a Women’s WorldTour time trial. The 10.2 km route from Doetinchem to Westendorp, Netherlands, was the perfect place to make use of the results.
“Our testing the other week helped me find a few watts, and I’d like to spend some time this winter really working on my position,” says Williams. “I’ve always kind of been on the bubble of whether I want to focus on TT or not, and I think this result is the one I needed to say yes, let’s go for it, and I think I have a lot of room to move.”
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Although an Olympic and world champion on the track for Team USA in the team pursuit, Williams is quick to stress that they are different beasts. Team coach Callum McQueen was present in Ghent.
“Although there aren’t many TTs in the women’s calendar this year, it’s still really important that we spend time optimizing to yield results individually and for GC contention,” explains McQueen. “We spent time in Ghent recently making positional adjustments, which allows us to create a datapoint for simulations and also reduce overall drag. Both of these have presented themselves today in a positive result for Lily and the team.”
The final European WorldTour race of 2025 comes to a close tomorrow. After a sapping 115 km lead-in with seven gravel sectors, the peloton makes it to a three-lap finishing circuit and a final dash to the line.
“I’m hoping for some luck and good legs,” says Williams. “On paper, the stage should suit me, but of course, anything can happen when you go off-road. Regardless, I’m really happy with my week, and I’m motivated to finish it off strong.”
General Classification after stage 5
1 WIEBES Lorena – Team SD Worx – Protime 11:41:09
2 BALSAMO Elisa – Lidl – Trek 0:48
3 JASTRAB Megan – Team Picnic PostNL 0:51
4 BÄCKSTEDT Zoe – CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto ”
5 VIGIÉ Margaux – Team Visma | Lease a Bike 0:56
6 SCHWEINBERGER Christina – Fenix-Deceuninck 0:57
7 NOOIJEN Lieke – Team Visma | Lease a Bike 1:15
8 SWINKELS Karlijn – UAE Team ADQ 1:16
9 WILLIAMS Lily – Human Powered Health 1:27
10 FERGUSON Cat – Movistar Team 1:36
