Monday June 17, 2024 at 7:16 PM
The general cycling public was really introduced to Femke de Vries on Monday. The 30-year-old rider from Visma | Lease a Bike, who only came into contact with a racing bike for the first time when she was 23, finished on the podium in a fiercely contested third stage of the Tour of Switzerland. De Vries finished third after a day on the attack.
In the third stage of the Swiss stage race to Champagne, five riders, including De Vries, took the break after thirty kilometers of racing. The escapees built up a maximum lead of more than three minutes and started the last climb of the day with a two-minute lead. De Vries tried to follow a Canyon//SRAM duo – Neve Bradbury and Katarzyna Niewiadoma – on the flanks of this climb.
This turned out to be a bit too ambitious, but De Vries continued to fight towards the finish and eventually crossed the line in third place. And not only that: she has also made a leap in the rankings and is now tenth, with one stage to go. “I am really very happy with my performance,” a happy De Vries looks back on the stage on her team’s website. “I was well positioned, which got me into the flight.”
“In the beginning I thought: what have I gotten myself into? But I soon noticed that I was good. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep up with the pace on the last climb of the day, but then I gave it everything until the finish. It was nice that I also won the sprint, I didn’t expect that.”
Late bloomer
De Vries is a textbook example of a late bloomer. It was only in the winter of 2022-2023 that she decided to quit her part-time job in geriatric medicine to pursue a career as a professional cyclist. She started her cycling career working for club team Loving Potatoes Cycling Team and then rode for GT Krush RebelLease.
She was picked up by the major Visma | in June Lease a Bike. The Tour of Switzerland is only the second race for her new team. “I really didn’t expect that I would be able to compete at this level now. I took the opportunity I was given to ride for this team with both hands and it is great that it has now paid off. The fact that I can compete with the best in this field makes me very happy.”
2024-06-17 17:16:00
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