Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) followed a powerful Dutch lead-out, surfed the wheels to perfection and then surged away to win the elite women's road race title at the UEC Road European Championships in Limburg, Belgium.
The Dutch team led the field into the final flat kilometres of the 162km race from Heusden-Zolder to Hasselt, at speeds reaching more than 53km/h.
Although France and Italy challenged the Netherlands with their own lead-outs, Wiebes stayed cool, jumped on the Italian train and then launched the fastest sprint to the line.
She beat runner-up Elisa Balsamo (Italy), third-placed Daria Pikulik (Poland) and fourth-place Clara Copponi (France) by several bike lengths.
Wiebes' victory marks the sixth consecutive win for the Netherlands in the elite women's EUC road race, and the eighth in the last nine years, only beaten by Italy's Marta Bastianelli in the 2018 edition.
How it unfolded
The elite women's field faced a 162 km hilly road race from Heusden-Zolder to Hasselt. The peloton passed through the finish line for the first time just 27km into the race and then embarked on opening short circuits, a large loop and finishing circuits in Hasselt.
There were six cobbled sectors on the course that added to the dynamics of the race along with four categorised ascents: Kolmontberg (700m at 4.4%) and Zammelenberg (800m at 3.8%), which were tackled a second time on the final lap of the large circuit, before entering the Hasselt finish circuits.
There were several crashes, mechanicals and a flurry of attacks as the peloton departed from Heusden-Zolder but the field remained intact as they entered the first cobbled sectors of the race.
The Dutch team with defending champion Mischa Bredewold managed the pace at the front of the field but after multiple attacks from riders on the Belgian and Spanish teams, and then a countermove from Nikola Nosková (Czech Republic), the field split with roughly 50 riders in the front group.
Mireia Benito (Spain) was the first rider to gain any significant time on the peloton, led by the Dutch squad, pushing her lead out to 20 seconds ahead of the back-to-back climb over the Kolmontbberg and Zammelenberg on the first large circuit.
Benito crested the two climbs and maintained a gap of 25 seconds over the peloton, while Jade Wiel (France) attempted to bridge across to the solo breakaway rider. Wiel's efforts to bridge across were short lived, however and both she and Benito's time out front came to an end as the race reached the Op de Kriezel cobblestone sector with 58 km to go.
Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France), Liane Lippert (Germany), and the Dutch trio Bredewold, Loes Adegeest and Thatlita de Jong formed a new five-rider move but that too was short lived and the reduced field was back together on the second large circuit ahead of the Kolmontbberg and Zammelenberg.
Another series of attacks came from riders from the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium, but Sara Martin (Spain) was the only rider to successfully open a gap inside 30km to go. As the Spanish rider pushed her lead out to 20 seconds, Germany's Lea Lin Teutenberg and then her teammate Lippert gave chase, followed by Nina Berton (Luxembourg) and Marion Norbert (Belgium) but none were strong enough to make it across the gap.
Martin's gap increased to nearly 30 seconds as she raced through the finish line at the start of the last 15 km circuit. But the eight-rider Dutch team pulled to the front of the peloton, slashing the gap in half on the flat circuit, and then caught Martin with 12km to go.
The Dutch riders led the field into the final kilometres of the race with a lead-out that hit speeds of over 53 km/h. They were eventually challenged by the French and Italian teams inside the last kilometre and the sprint became chaotic as Italy surged on the left.
Wiebes lost her lead out but wisely got on the Italian train and then kicked at the same as Balsamo with two hundred metres to go. She was significantly faster than Balsamo and anyone else, taking the sixth consecutive elite women's road race title for the Netherlands.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
