London Paris ride captain Alice Monger-Godfrey scored her first win of the 2009 season in Belgium this weekend. The race a 95km circuit style race held in St Niklaas near Antwerp attracted some of women’s cycling biggest names. Current World Cup leader and Olympic silver medallist Emma Johansson was among the starting list, as was rising British star and World silver medallist Lizzie Armistead.
Escaping with 7 out of the 12 laps remaining Monger-Godfrey was joined by Vision 1’s Debby van de Bergh. The pair extended their lead to a maximum of 1min 35secs and at the finish had a comfortable enough lead to play cat and mouse tactics for the sprint.
Monger-Godfrey said of the finish, “I knew I was the faster sprinter and so just had to wait to jump and knew with 10m to go I had won. It’s such and amazing feeling”.
19 year old Monger-Godfrey is based in Oudenaarde, Belgium and trains around much of the terrain from the Tour of Flanders. It has been a huge jump for the Surrey youngster who has made the move to be a full time cyclist this year. “I am living with London-Paris Cycle Tour Ride Captain Emma Davies and I train with both her and Emma Johansson (Olympic silver medallist). They have both pushed me on in leaps and bounds and seeing how they train and live is a real inspiration. Making the race winning move today and being out front for such a long time, I just thought to myself this isn’t as hard as training with the two Emma’s at times!”
Monger-Godfrey will be the Ride Captain for Group 2 at the London-Paris Cycle Tour in June this year and she intends to be at the Bike Radar Live event in support of HotChillee. Claiming victory aboard her L2P sponsored Specialized Ruby bike Monger-Godfrey said how much she is looking forward to be part of Britain’s premier Professional Event for Amateurs. “I was in Paris last week with Emma and we rode up and down the Champs Elysee. We both said how amazing it’s going to be finishing in Paris under the Eifel Tower, I can’t wait.” Before that Monger-Godfrey has a full racing programme ahead of her.
We wish her the best of luck!