'Annoying' Kastelijn overjoyed after winning Tour stage: "I knew I was one of the strongest"

After Lorena Wiebes, there was another Dutch success story in the Tour de France Femmes on Wednesday. Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Elegant) was by far the strongest from a large leading group and crossed the finish line solo in Rodez. It was her first victor in road cycling.

"I can't really describe this day," exults Kastelijn in a conversation with NOS. "On the first climb we rode away with a group of four, due to the sprint for the mountain points. Then another group joined us and we went full throttle for ten minutes, until we had a minute. That minute turned into ten minutes, so we knew we were safe at that point," said the rider, who we mainly know from cyclo-cross.

"Because Marthe (Truyen, ed.) was with me all day, I could save my powers. Maybe some girls found me a bit annoying, but in the end the victory is what really matters and I knew I was one of the strongest when it went uphill for a long time," Kastelijn had a lot of confidence along the way. "The team did a great job and I'm super happy that I was able to get the job done."

Kastelijn makes a big jump in the general classification

Kastelijn was also in the virtual yellow jersey for a long time, but in the end, Lotte Kopecky managed to secure it by a wide margin. However, Kastelijn did move up to seventh place, one minute behind the Belgian leader. "I wanted to grab some seconds at the bonus sprint because I knew we had a big lead and didn't know if we would be able to keep it. It's a nice bonus that I now move up a lot in the classification. This victory is incredible."