Paternoster wins Festival Elsy Jacobs

Letizia Paternoster (Astana Women) sprinted to victory in an action-packed final stage of the Festival Elsy Jacobs. The win ahead of Lotta Lepisto was enough to give the 18-year-old the overall title, the biggest road win of her career so far.

The young Italian managed to win a chaotic bunch sprint at the conclusion of a very exciting stage, which saw the yellow jersey and local favourite Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) pushed down to second on general classification. Fourth on the day, American rider Alexis Ryan (Canyon//SRAM) finished third overall.

With many riders close together on the general classification, everything was to play for as the day started and the peloton headed out on a long opening loop. The first GPM brought no fireworks, though over the top Sofia Beggin (Astana Women) instigated a break of three women when she was joined first by Manon Lloyd (Trek Drops), then Jessy Druyts (Lotto-Soudal). The trio survived until the peloton reached the local laps around Garnich, only caught with 43km to go.

Once on those circuits, and having remained hidden on the opening classified climb, Sofia Bertizzolo (Astana Women) won the second GPM, and in so doing secured the blue WMT Ceratizit Group climber’s jersey, crossing the line at the top of the Montée de Garnich first.

Her move to win the points drew out some of the race favourites, Majerus, Ryan, Eugenia Bujak (BTC-City Ljubljana), Sabrina Stultiens (Waowdeals) and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) all forming a break away, though the Italian was soon dropped. With a substantial lead Moolman-Pasio attacked, putting a now isolated Majerus under pressure.

Soon after Moolman-Pasio was caught, and a group of around 35 riders formed, though the attacks continued, with the Luxembourg champion forced to close each one down.

It was this group that contested the final sprint with Paternoster powerful enough to win the stage, the bonus seconds taking her into the overall race lead when it mattered most, and winning the Yellow Skoda leader’s jersey

As the top rated U23 rider Paternoster also secured the Ville de Luxembourg white jersey, to go with the Farei Services green points jersey the victory also secured her.

In her home race, defending champion Majerus was obviously disappointed.

Results