Laval’s Emilie Fortin is riding for the Belgian Minimax Cycling Team this year, so that means riding in the biggest one-day race in that country—the Tour of Flanders. The women’s race, just like the men’s, was brutally hard. FDJ-SUEZ’s Demi Vollering, in her European champion’s speedsuit took off on the Oude Kwaremont, and no one could follow.
Visma – Lease a Bike’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Fenix-Deceuninck’s Puck Pieterse tried for the rest of the race to catch Vollering, but it was all for naught. Vollering took her first win at Flanders. The day was not only tough due to the bergs and speed, but also the weather.
Gusty day in Flanders
“It was very windy,” Laval’s Fortin said. “That made the race hard because in the crosswinds you couldn’t sit in the wheels approaching or coming out of a section.”
Fortin said that the gusty winds made the day’s racing even more brutal, “as the course in itself is also hard so it was a nice mix of suffering.” She would go on to be the second-best Canadian finisher in 55th; national champion Alison Jackson was 50th in the same group as Fortin.
Fortin has been riding well this year, after an 18-month fight with Epstein-Barr virus. She spent 93 km in an early four-rider break at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with Lea Lin Teutenberg, Britt De Grave and Jony Van Den Eijnden. The group split, but Fortin and De Grave pressed on until they were caught with 40 km to go.
More than just TV time, it marked a real return after her 2023 Clásica de Almería win. The following seasons were a grind—but the form is coming back. “I did a lot of recons of the course. I was staying in Ghent, so I tried to ride as much as possible in the area to know the start and end,” she said. “The break went away pretty fast, and then, yeah, the legs felt good. We were only four, so it was quite hard with the wind, but we were working really well together.”
She’s also enjoying her first year with the Conti squad. “I think the most important thing in a team is having strong team spirit.”
Next up for the 26-year-old rider is the Region Pays de la Loire Tour in France on Tuesday.