The Draai van de Kaai (“Turn of the Quay”) isn’t a well-known race among British fans, but it tends to attract a good selection of British riders and foreign riders on British teams – eight were due to race this year, though only three (Lucy Garner of Liv-Plantur and Jolien D’hoore and Amy Roberts of Wiggle-Honda) were on the start line.

It’s a crit, which makes it unlikely that any British fans would be keen to go over especially for it, but with Roosendaal (hometown of Antoine Mazairac, who won silver in the cycling sprint 1928 Olympics, as you already know) only 130km from Erpe-Mere where the Erondegemse Pijl takes place a few days before, it’s entirely “doable” for a Brit enjoying a week in the Low Countries.

Race report below…

 

Draai van de Kaai Twitter – Official website

Race Report

Text and photos © Hans van der Maarel

The women’s race at the Draai van de Kaai, one of the Dutch post-TdF crits, had a rather strong starting lineup. Rabo/Liv was there with 3 riders (Anna van der Breggen, sporting the Giro’s maglia rosa, Lucinda Brand and Moniek Tenniglo), Liv/Plantur with 2 (Amy Pieters and Lucy Garner) and Wiggle-Honda with 2 (Jolien d’Hoore and Amy Roberts).

There also was a 5-rider Canadian mix team, Valentina Scandolara from Orica, Chantal Blaak from Boels-Dolmans and Chanella Stougje from Parkhotel Valkenburg. The field was rounded out by a number of amateur riders, bringing the total to 31 riders.

After a neutralized lap the race started at high speed. For the first few laps the bunch stayed together but it quite quickly broke into 3 parts due to the initial attacks. Stephanie Roorda from the Canadian team was very active in this phase of the race and got a little bit of a lead going on. All of the big names were in the first chasing group, except for Wiggle-Honda.

After a while Roorda was caught and the situation in the first group remained nervous, with several attacks, notably by Scandolara and Brand, who managed to get a breakaway going. Behind the first group there was little coordination, so the situation didn’t change. Towards the end of the race the attacks intensified, with van der Breggen and Tenniglo doing a lot of work at the front. Around this time the lead group lapped the 3rd group. In the end it got down to a sprint between Brand and Scandolara, narrowly won by Brand.

Draai van de Kaai 2015
1 Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv) 1h26’50”
2 Valentina Scandolara (Orica-AIS) ST
3 Amy Pieters (Liv-Plantur) +15″
British Rider/Team Results –
12 Lucy Garner (Liv-Plantur)
14 Jolien D’hoore (Wiggle-Honda)
15 Amy Roberts (Wiggle-Honda)
DNS Anette Edmondson (Wiggle-Honda), Emilia Fahlin (Wiggle-Honda), Mayuko Hagiwara (Wiggle-Honda), Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-Honda), Pia de Quint (WNT)

Full results

Draai van de Kaai – Wiggle-Honda – Lucy Garner – Amy Roberts – Jolien D’hoore

Hans’ Draai van de Kaai photoset

 

 

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