In Flanders Fields Women: Lorena Wiebes sprints to record third consecutive victory in Wevelgem

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won in the streets of Wevelgem for the third year in a row. But unlike the two previous years, she won the 2026 edition of In Flanders Fields in the sprint of a small group of five that had formed on the Kemmelberg, driving the group home, closing down attacks and outsprinting Fleur Moors (Lidl-Trek) and Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ).

An attack by Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) on the Baneberg had led to a group of 14 riders getting away. From that group, Wiebes pushed hard on the Kemmelberg, and only Elise Chabbey (FDJ United-Suez), Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), Moors, and Swinkels could follow her over the top.

This set up a 35-kilometre tail-crosswind pursuit. The eight-rider chase steadily lost ground to the front group and was reeled in by the peloton with 15km to go.

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Up front, the five riders traded turns until the last kilometres, and although the peloton came closer in the end, they were too late. Gasparrini attacked with 3.8km to go, and Wiebes was forced to chase her down, then keep the group moving on her own, as nobody wanted to take over from her anymore.

Despite this, Wiebes easily pulled away when she launched her sprint, and although Moors got out of her slipstream in the final metres and closed in as Wiebes sat up to celebrate, the Dutch champion was first over the line.

17 seconds later, Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ United-Suez) won the bunch sprint for sixth place.

"During the race, I felt that I had good legs, and on the Kemmel the last time I was like, 'I can still go a bit faster, so why not pace it myself?' We were away with a good group, everybody did their turns. UAE started to attack in the last kilometres, of course, and then nobody wanted to take over in the last 2km," Wiebes described the race from her perspective.

"I started my sprint very early. 300 metres is quite early, and maybe I celebrated a bit too early, giving the DS a scare in the team car, but it was enough," said Wiebes.

How it unfolded

A break of four went away soon after the start of the 135.2km race: Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Lea Lin Teutenberg (Lotto-Intermarché), Yonna van Dam (Citymesh-Customm), and Heidi Antikainen (Minimax) built a gap that maxed out at just over five minutes with 85km to go.

A few minutes later, Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek), Georgia Baker, Noä Jansen (both Liv AlUla Jayco), Lara Gillespie, Megan Jastrab (both UAE Team ADQ), and Josie Nelson (Picnic PostNL) attacked from the peloton, with Sterre Vervloet (Lotto-Intermarché) and Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime) quickly bridging the gap.

There were multiple crashes in the peloton that could not reel in the chase group until Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) launched a move on the first of the Plugstreet gravel sectors with 76km to go. Koch’s attack was followed by Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), who bridged to the chasers, and there was a general regrouping on the asphalt.

The break was still two minutes ahead after the Plugstreets, but this had fallen to 56 seconds on the Monteberg, where Eraso and Teutenberg left Van Dam and Antikainen behind while Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) attacked out of the peloton.

On the first ascent of the Kemmelberg, Koch led the peloton up the cobbled climb and past Gery. Eraso had dropped Teutenberg and survived the climb but was caught soon after the descent.

After a lull in the race, Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels) made the next attack with 51km to go, and Baker bridged to her two kilometres later. They had a gap of up to 20 seconds but were caught just before the Baneberg, where Persico accelerated to force a split in the peloton.

With Chabbey and Wiebes on her wheel, Persico attacked once again just before the top, and a group of 14 riders got away on the descent. Persico had her teammates Megan Jastrab, Gasparrini, and Swinkels with her, while Liv AlUla Jayco had Letizia Paternoster and Mackenzie Coupland, Fenix-Premier Tech had Charlotte Kool and Millie Couzens, Lidl-Trek were represented by Moors and Balsamo, while Wiebes, Chabbey, Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal), and Daniek Hengeveld (Visma-Lease a Bike) were their respective teams’ only riders in the group.

UAE Team ADQ, and especially Jastrab, did most of the work between the Baneberg and Kemmelberg, opening a 20-second gap to a peloton of about 30 riders before the final climb of the day.

Chabbey led the group onto the cobbles, but it was Wiebes who quickly took over, setting a pace that only Chabbey, Gasparrini, Moors, and Swinkels could follow. They were six seconds ahead at the top of the climb and had increased their gap to the eight chasers to 14 seconds with 31km to go. The peloton was over a minute behind.

Helped by a cross-tailwind on the way to Ieper and then to the finish in Wevelgem, the five frontrunners steadily increased their advantage further and further. Passing through the Menenpoort in Ieper with 25km to go, they were 38 seconds ahead of the chase group and 1:14 minutes ahead of the peloton, and the chase group lost more ground until it was 57 seconds behind when the peloton made the catch around 15km from the line.

Hengeveld had attacked from the chase just before but was eventually reeled in, too. The front group, however, was too far ahead to be caught, even though Wiebes had to do everything herself in the final, closing down Gasparrini’s first move with a 1.4km chase, jumping after Gasparrini when the Italian attacked again on the penultimate kilometre, and leading the group onto the finishing straight in Wevelgem.

Starting the sprint from the front, Wiebes quickly opened a gap on Swinkels in third position while Moors stayed on her wheel, and the Dutch champion posted up to celebrate at the 25-metre mark. Moors kept sprinting and came close on the final metres, but Wiebes won the sprint by a wheel.

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