Wild wins women's Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne

Image 1 of 33

Kirsten Wild (WNT-Rotor) moved seamlessly from the track to the road, winning the Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne one-day race with her strong sprint. After a fast race without a lasting breakaway, Wild launched her sprint at the right moment and won, with Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) and Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal Ladies) rounding out the podium.

"I am very happy," said Wild after the finish. "I had a busy winter with track racing, then directly switched to the road, so I was actually a bit tired. It is great to start like this, in a Women's WorldTour race on the highest level."

Starting in the medieval city centre of Brugge and finishing in the bustling seaside resort of De Panne, the race covered 134.4km, mostly along or near the North Sea coast. Unlike last year, the wind was only a very light breeze, so there were no echelons. Combined with only one cobblestone section that came in the first 15km, a mass sprint was almost inevitable. The race finished with 2.5 laps of a 17.7km finishing circuit.

This did not deter the more aggressive riders of the peloton, however. Anja Longyka (BTC City Ljubljana), Sheyla Gutierrez (Movistar Team), Chantal Hoffmann (Lotto Soudal Ladies), Hayley Simmonds (BTC City Ljubljana), Loes Adegeest (Parkhotel Valkenburg), and Daniela Reis (Doltcini-Van Eyck) all tried their luck, but none of them could stay away for more than a few kilometres against a determined peloton.

Séverine Eraud (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) held her own the longest, building a gap of half a minute after attacking with 56km to go. The Frenchwoman was reeled in at the start of the finishing laps, 44km from the line.

The narrow roads and tram tracks on the finishing circuit made for nervous racing with several crashes, though nobody was badly injured. Sofia Bertizzolo (Team Virtu Cycling), the leader of the UCI Women’s WorldTour youth ranking, went solo with 33km to go. Bertizzolo soon had an advantage of 22 seconds, causing a surge in pace as Boels Dolmans worked hard to bring her back.

When Bertizzolo's move had been neutralised with 22km left to race, there were new attacks, with Boels Dolmans being particularly active, but nobody managed to get away and the peloton eventually settled into the sprint preparation. A move by Amy Pieters (Boels Dolmans) and Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) on the Veurne market square with 8.5 km to go was immediately shut down by Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo).

On the final kilometres, the sprint trains vied with each other for the best position, and it was Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans) who led out her teammate Amalie Dideriksen for the sprint. The Danish champion had to start her sprint very early and faltered while Kirsten Wild and Lorena Wiebes came from behind with superior speed. Lotte Kopecky had to go around Dideriksen and just missed out on second place against Wiebes, but Wild was superior and won with over a bike length to her nearest competitors.

Full Results