On the sign-in for stage 1 of the RideLondon Classique in Saffron Walden, Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) was simple to identify within the red-and-white jersey of the Danish nationwide champion. The 23-year-old will put on a special jersey on stage 2, although: She went into the breakaway and received all three QOM sprints, placing her within the orange-and-blue QOM jersey.
“We needed to have an aggressive race and be out entrance with no less than one rider. Fortunately, I used to be the one who bought to get away. I’ve actually been wanting ahead to stepping into an actual breakaway, and at the moment I succeeded, so I am actually completely happy,” Koerner mentioned within the post-stage interview.
She and Lea Lin Teutenberg (Ceratizit-WNT) bought away very early within the 159.2-kilometre stage and break up the QOM and dash factors between themselves, sharing the workload on their experience of 140km earlier than being caught with 16.5km to go.
“It might have been higher to have extra folks on the market, however the two of us cooperated effectively, and we had a pleasant day collectively. Ultimately, I managed to get what I got here for, I’m completely happy about that,” Koerner mentioned about her day forward of the pack on the Essex roads.
The Dane is one other lateral entrant into ladies’s biking: In her youth, she practiced excessive diving and had received three Danish championships at age 18.
However after injuring her hip and again when she fell badly within the diving pool, she switched to street biking, shopping for her first race bike in 2019.
Koerner spent the following two seasons with the well-known Copenhagen biking membership ABC (Arbejdernes Bicycle Membership). In 2021, she took six home victories within the red-white-blue package, together with a stage and the GC within the prestigious Randers Bike Week, and was chosen for the World Championships.
For 2022, Koerner signed with the Uno-X Professional Biking Group, nonetheless her present squad, and in 2023, she received the Danish street championships from an early breakaway, ending with a 32-kilometre solo.
Waiting for Saturday, Koerner hopes to defend her new orange-and-blue jersey.
“It might be good to maintain the jersey additionally after tomorrow, however we must see how the stage goes tomorrow,” she mentioned.
There are not any QOMs on the ultimate stage within the centre of London, and stage 2 has the identical variety of QOMs as stage 1. Which means that even when somebody have been to win all stage 2 QOMs, they might at most draw equal to Koerner, placing the GC place into play as a tiebreaker.
Koerner misplaced 20 seconds on the uphill end in Colchester and is 54th total, 22 seconds behind stage winner Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), and the QOM classification may even come all the way down to bonus seconds on the intermediate dash in London. But when Koerner manages to grab only one QOM level on stage 2, she solely has to complete the race to win the orange jersey.
