Daniek Hengeveld (22) hit rock bottom, but thanks to a 50-kilometer solo(!), she’s now at the top in Australia
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Follow us on GoogleDaniek Hengeveld has fabulously started 2025. The 22-year-old rider transferred from Picnic-PostNL to CERATIZIT-WNT this winter and immediately gave her new team a stage win in the first stage of the Tour Down Under. After a massive solo, she crossed the finish line 36 seconds ahead of the peloton. It goes without saying that she also took the leader's jersey in the process.
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Hengeveld is not a name that probably rings a bell immediately, which is unsurprising. She is very talented, but after her victory in the Belgrade GP Woman Tour in 2021 for GT Krush Tunap (she was 18 years old), it took a while before we saw her riding at the front again. Her transfer to Team dsm-firmenich in 2023 contributed to that.
In the WorldTour, Hengeveld made the necessary progress and showed herself strong in short prologues/time trials, among other things. Not surprisingly, she managed to stay ahead of the peloton on Friday in the Dutch night. There is power in her, and she successfully completed a solo of about fifty kilometers. The first stage in the Tour Down Under for women was 101.9 kilometers long and led from Brighton to Aldinga.
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Hengeveld wins at Tour Down Under
Horrible crash in Tour of Britain affected Hengeveld a lot
The win sparked something in Hengeveld, which was no surprise. After all, in the summer of 2024, she crashed hard at the Tour of Britain, breaking her jaw, collarbone, and multiple ribs. She did not race for over three months and finally returned to the AG Tour de la Semois. "This is super unexpected, after a tough year in 2024," she told the organization in Australia after the race.
The recovery from her fractures was "much faster than expected," she wrote on her Instagram page in July. In a post just after the crash, she showed more emotion: "I'm still alive, although it doesn't feel like it. The last few days were the toughest of my life, full of mental and physical pain. Any personal situation did not focus me, so let this be an eye-opener: the mental state of a rider is as important as the physical."
Read more below the photo.
Hengeveld struggled to return to cycling
In 2023, Hengeveld was once in the winning position in Nokere Koerse. We didn't see her win before. "Winning my first WorldTour race for my new team is incredible. I will try to defend the leader's jersey on Willunga Hill tomorrow. I've never been a typical climber, but we will try as a team and otherwise have good climbers with us."
It was also her teammates who helped Hengeveld pull off the trick. With Canadian Sarah van Dam, they finished fourth in a sprinting peloton, behind Ally Wollaston (FDJ-SUEZ) and Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health). However, Hengeveld still did it mostly by himself. "I finally raced like I was 18," she cheered. "It was hard to see if I still loved cycling and what riding with a team that believed in me was like. It's nice. It's a good feeling."
Results stage 1 Tour Down Under - Elite women 2025
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
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Bram van der PloegEditor-in-chief
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
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Latest Comments
- Eight riders told to go for stages, and nobody gets one—hard to know what the plan was there. It’ll be interesting to see whether they pick a clear leader next time.bikebuffj10-11-2026
- Was Bernal’s 20th place really their best GC result? I thought he might have finished higher. Either way, it sounds like a rough Tour for the whole team.gearguru3310-11-2026
- Five days in breaks with no stage win is a painful stat. The team had chances, but they need to turn those opportunities into results.julien10-11-2026
- The Onley Vuelta example makes sense: a team with someone to rally around often looks much more cohesive. Hopefully INEOS can build on that rather than expecting a quick return to the Sky years.cadencekingm10-11-2026
- Thomas is right about the ambiguity. Eight riders all chasing stages can end up pulling in different directions, even if nobody’s deliberately working against anyone. They need a clearer plan once the GC leaders are out.robert6510-11-2026
- What a mess. The report makes it sound as though nobody properly explained the decision, and that’s hard to defend.jennifer1910-11-2026
- I’m still learning the rules: does moving left in a sprint automatically bring a penalty, or does it depend on whether the other rider is blocked? It sounds like Brand wasn’t impeded here.patriciaw10-11-2026
- A final decision still needs a proper explanation. If the federation’s complaint goes nowhere, I hope the officials at least review how they handled the riders afterwards.michael5410-11-2026
- Fair play to Lucinda for saying Marie had won fair and square. That kind of sportsmanship matters, especially after such a controversial decision.raceready710-11-2026
- Schreiber beat Brand on the road, so the jury needed to explain clearly why that slight deviation warranted relegation. Being cut off before she could give her account sounds appalling.lindae10-11-2026
