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Rough Roads TdFF22-24
When the camera first found Maaike Boogaard (UAE Team ADQ) she was picking up what I (and the commentators) assumed was her bike. Naturally, the guess was that she had wrecked on the loose gravel of the Chemin Blanc du Plateau de Blu. Actually, she had just given her bike to her team leader Mavi Garcia. Now I understand why the bike seemed way too tall to be hers. She played her role of support rider sending her teammate off to stay in her high placing in the general classification. Unfortunately, another teammate had to give her a bike, and the team car eventually give her two bike in the course of the stage. Worse yet, she swung in to a line in front of her team car and clipped the vehicle with her rear wheel. It was miracle that the drive didn't run her over as she slid across the road. She did well to only finish three minutes and nineteen seconds behind the stage winner. Sadly that meant she dropped from sixth place to eleventh on the GC.
I am thrilled to see Boogaard in this race. I met her when she was racing as a Junior in the World Championships in Richmond, VA in 2015. I have a paternal feeling watching her career grow to this level. She was just so excited that I would paint her way back then.