Second place for Lotta Henttala in Valencia

Lotta Henttala sprinted to a second place today in the opening stage of the Setmana Ciclista-Volta Comunitat Valenciana Fèmines, just behind former world champion Elisa Balsamo. It was her first race back after three years away from the peloton. Her son Olavi, who just turned one, watched his mum’s comeback at the finish line.

“It was super special to have Olavi there,” says Lotta with a smile. “It’s super nice to be back but it was hectic with a peloton of 160. I needed to find my place and rhythm again which is normal of course. The team played an important role in that. We rode together really nicely until the final where I said I would do my own sprint and follow some wheels."

The stage from Valencia to Sagunt was a pretty straightforward one with one climb in the first half of the stage where Justine Ghekiere took mountain points by crossing the l’Oronet in second place. It was in the cards from the start it would be a bunch kick in the streets of Sagunt and naturally Lotta was the woman for the job. She already won two stages here in 2019, including on the same finish as today.

“Jolien said I should go into the last corner as third or fourth place which I did in fourth. I knew what to do but I hesitated a bit in the end and then braked a little. I don’t know why. But a second place after three years not racing is amazing. I can be happy with this because I got beaten by a former world champion.”

Ashleigh Moolman saw a team that worked really well together in their first race ever. The experienced South African rider was impressed.

“It was really amazing how the team spirit and the work we did at training camp translated in the race from the very first second. It was incredible to see how we rode together so well with good communication throughout the day.

It was so nice to see how confidently calm Lotta was. I could see straight from the start she was happy, motivated and calm and knew we would have a result. It all came together and it’s special to be part of it. There are many amazing things still to come starting tomorrow.”