How does SD Worx-Protime view Vollering's FDJ-Suez's dominance? "At Amstel, it’s different"

It’s a cliché question, but after someone has just finished second in a major race, you almost have to ask it: which feeling prevails? "Uhh... the disappointment for a moment, I think. I'm happy with how we rode, but you really want to get that first victory of the season."

Bredewold was treated to a luxury lead-out. Anna van der Breggen was out front but decided to play her teammates' card against the faster Loes Adegeest. Subsequently, Lotte Kopecky was supposed to lead out the sprint for Bredewold, but the fact that it was Kopecky specifically created a difficult situation.

Bredewold explains: "It's impossible. Impossible. They all think Lotte is going to sprint, of course, so I just couldn't get into her wheel. That didn't work in Nokere either. Then she went for the sprint herself, but I tried to be a bit of a sweeper in the wheel."

The sweeper is the person who rides behind the designated sprinter to keep the other top riders out of the fray. It was Bredewold, the designated fast woman, who ended up in that squeeze. "I was in the wind far too much in the last kilometre. I just didn't manage to stay in Lotte's wheel. Looking back, I think I should have handled it differently."

"The term 'team wheel' does exist, but in sprints? People don't often respect that," Bredewold corrects us. "I think they indeed thought Lotte would sprint, and then being a sweeper is the most annoying task there is. If Lotte had been in my wheel, it would have been different than the other way around."

"It's just impossible to hold her wheel with all that violence. Ultimately, I think I wasted way too much energy trying to stay on her wheel. I was in the wind too much and the communication wasn't working either. So I couldn't tell the girls, or Anna, that we had to change lines. In the end, all that wasted energy cost me that one metre."

"Now I think: I should have come up with a plan. But my radio wasn't working, so I couldn't really direct them," continues the Dutchwoman, who is keen to emphasise that winner Célia Gery certainly didn't steal it, even if it was close. "I've often done it the way Gery did, and it's super smart, coming from behind like that."

"I'm very happy with how it went and I'm heading to Amstel with a better feeling than last year. As a team, we also needed this race to wake us up and keep us on our toes. We are also riding with a 'new' group, without taking anything away from the Classics squad so far."

"Picking up the momentum again was also part of our goal, because I think we've been chasing the race a bit in the last few events. That we weren't where we needed to be. We actually had a pretty tough pre-race meeting, so I think that woke us up a bit," said Bredewold.

For Bredewold, second place following her ninth-place finish in De Ronde is fresh confirmation that her form is good. And the race she won last year, the Gold Race, is still to come. "I had a bit of a messy start with some crashes, and then it’s nice every now and then to watch that race back for motivation and confidence. In any case, I'm really looking forward to riding Amstel again and experiencing it all."

SD Worx-Protime may have won Milan-San Remo, but so far it is mainly FDJ-Suez who have been celebrating this spring. After the Omloop, De Ronde (Demi Vollering), Strade (Elise Chabbey), and Roubaix (Franziska Koch), it was Gery who triumphed in Overijse on Friday. What do Bredewold and co expect from the French team in South Limburg?

"FDJ-Suez takes a lot of control, often putting all their eggs in one basket for one woman. In principle, they can do that again on Sunday, but in Amstel, it’s still a bit different. Because the reference points are less fixed than in Flanders. In Limburg, it's constantly up and down, whereas in Flanders you race more from climb to climb."