Febe Jooris maintains her lead in the youth classification

The penultimate day of the Baloise Ladies Tour presented a challenging program for the riders of AG Insurance – Soudal on Saturday, with two half-stages both held in Zwevegem. Febe Jooris retained her position at the top of the youth classification and will wear the white jersey for the fourth consecutive day. In addition to this, she continues to hold also the green one, awarded to the best Belgian rider.

The morning began with a road stage originally set to cover 94.7 kilometers, but due to a serious crash after 10 kilometers, the race was neutralized and shortened to 66 kilometers. Febe Jooris describes the hectic day: “Saturday was super hectic. After 10 kilometers, the race was stopped due to a serious crash, causing us to stand still for about half an hour. It was then decided to shorten the race. We just did the big loop, which was of course constantly controlled by the big teams and ridden quite quickly because everyone wanted to get out of the chaos as soon as possible. On the Kluisberg, there was an attack from Wiebes, and Maaike and I were just a bit too far behind, so we missed the main group. We were in the third group, where the rotation wasn't good enough, so I decided to jump from the third group to the second group because there were still some dangerous riders for the GC there. Eventually, everything came back together, and we safely entered the local lap, which ended in a sprint. We all crossed the finish line safely, which I think was the most important thing for the day.”

The evening brought an additional challenge with an 11km individual time trial, which Maaike Boogaard finished just outside the podium. This strong effort elevated her to fourth on the general classification ahead of the final stage.