Wiebes, Vos secure 1-2 for Netherlands at European Games

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Lorena Wiebes continued her out-standing season winning the gold medal in the elite women's road race title at the European Games in Minsk. It was 1-2 for the Dutch as her teammate Marianne Vos placed second. Belarussian Tatsiana Sharakova was third.

The European Games come around every four years and the last to win the title was Alena Amialiusik from Belarus ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma from Poland and Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands).

This year's race hosted 72 riders from 26 nations. The race was 120km in the city of Minsk where the women completed 8 laps of a 15km circuit that included a cobbled climb.

An early breakaway emerged to include Hannah Ludwig (Germany), Omer Shapira (Israel) and Hanna Tserakh (Belarus) but the move was brought back by the strong Dutch team. The field was back together for the last lap where Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) attacked on the climb, which served to reduce the main field to roughly 30 riders.

Wiebes' teammates set her up for a perfectly-timed sprint victory with Vos crossing the line just behind her in second place, but already celebrating her teammate's victory.

Wiebes has had one of her most successful seasons to date since turning professional last year. She started her career with the Parkhotel Valkenburg team and has signed a contract to remain with that team until the end of 2021.

This year, she has notched up victories at Danilith Nokere Koerse voor Dames, EPZ Omloop van Borsele, and stages of Tour de Yorkshire and Tour of Chongming Island, where she won every stage and the overall title. She also took second places at Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem. She showed top form this month after winning Diamond Tour.