WorldTour team Human Powered Health dominated the Lotto Thüringen Women Cycling Challenge, finishing 1-2 from a small group in Gera as Marit Raaijmakers took the win.
Sprinting from a four-rider group that had got away on the late, punchy circuits, Iurani Blanco opened up the sprint for Raaijmakers and held on to finish second herself to fill the top two spots for Human Powered Health.
Malou Eisen (VolkerWessels) finished third, with Kristýna Zemanová (VIF Cycling Team) the only rider in the lead group to miss out on the podium.
After the race split apart in the final 25km, the chasing group finished 30 seconds down on the winner, with the other WorldTour team in the race – Canyon-SRAM – settling for only sixth and seventh through Maike van der Duin and Chiara Consonni.
This year, the one-day Lotto Thüringen Women Cycling Challenge replaced the long-running Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour stage race, which has faced funding issues for the past few seasons, but they managed to still put on a one-day race this year.
The 121km route started and finsihed in Gera, tackling a lumpy first half and then six laps of a finishing circuit, which featured the 1.6km, 6.2% Ferberturm climb for a punchy and challenging finish.
Despite facing the Dörtendorf climb early on, it was hard for a break to get away in the first part of the race – despite many attacks – and the peloton started the finishing circuit all together. Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) briefly went solo but was caught before the final 25km.
As the challenging laps took their toll, though, the peloton split apart with only the strongest riders in front, and a small group of four led into the final 5km with a good gap on the chasers.
Human Powered Health had two riders in the front four, which gave them the advantage, allowing Blanco to open up the sprint for Raaijmakers and deliver her to the win.
Results
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