Niki Terpstra knows he will only be able to add the Rainbow Jersey to his palmares is he comes to the finish line in Richmond alone. But the Dutchman has a habbit of doing that, winning Paris-Roubaix and two Dwars door Vlaanderens this way. When he comes to the line, he often gets beat when he is with others: 2014 E3, 2015 Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem are all prime recent examples.
"For me, I prefer to be solo," Terpstra said to Cyclingnews ahead of Sunday's race. "Of course with a small group I can sometimes do a good sprint after such a long race, but I'd rather be alone."
"Of course, the shorter the effort, the easier," he said of his solo attacks. "These hills are all in the last 5km, so if you don't do it in the last section, it's maybe the lap before. But then it's going to be 20km and that's pretty long. Everything will happen in the last two laps, but that's like every world championships. I hope the race is starting earlier."
He says that the cobbled climbs are hardly those found in Flanders, but it is still hard and the distance will take its toll on some riders.
"I've seen the cobbles, they're not too difficult like a Flanders or something, but it doesn't make the climb easier. It suits me well, it's a hard final in this lap with three climbs in the last couple of kilometres.”
Terpstra is also confident he has a good team for the race, with himself, Tom Dumoulin, Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema and Lars Boom all prepared to go on the attack in the last few laps.
"I think you can compare this race to the GP Quebec - [Robert] Gesink and [Bauke] Mollema are also good in these races. Gesink won Quebec, Mollema was close there - all riders who can do well in a race of 250km. I think the team is pretty strong."
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