Pauliena Rooijakkers had a great stage one at Ceratizit Festival Elsy Jacobs today in Steinfort, Luxembourg. The CANYON//SRAM Racing rider finished fourth from a small group that formed only in the final 10km of racing in the 121km stage.

“We had a good plan to have Alice when it was a bunch sprint and myself to go on the uphill sections. The team did a great job to keep me in the front the whole day, which meant on the climbs I felt like I had something left,” described Pauliena.

“On the last climb which was near to the finish, I had to react to several attacks from SD Worx riders and I felt strong. Unfortunately, the climbs were a little bit too short to drop the faster riders out of our group. I gave it all from our small group, all the way until the finish line, but I know that I’m not the fastest. I’m happy with fourth place but we are all ready to fight tomorrow for more. With the support of all my teammates, we did a great race today and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Pauliena added, “We had a lot of fun racing together today. I also was really happy to see how Maud (Oudeman) was racing. She was strong today and you can see that she is now starting to get into the rhythm of racing.”

With her fourth place, Pauliena jumps up to fifth on the general classification, +13 seconds behind leader Silvia Persico (VAL). Tomorrow’s second and final stage is 109km around Garnich. The race start is 14:00CEST and can be followed on Twitter with #Felsy and the live broadcast starts at 15:00CEST on GCN, Eurosport and RTL Luxembourg.

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