'It was so close' - Breakthrough moment sees Fleur Moors on the podium at In Flanders Fields

In her first Spring Classics campaign at the highest level, 20-year-old Fleur Moors (Lidl-Trek) has already impressed, being an important domestique for Elisa Balsamo and scoring a second place for herself in the 1.Pro race Leeuw-Oetingen - but this weekend she took that up a notch with a second place at In Flanders Fields.

In her breakthrough moment, Moors finished second-place in the Women’s WorldTour classic, where she was only beaten by Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) after making a select front group of five over the Kemmelberg and working to bring the group to the finish line in Wevelgem.

“I love the Belgian races, and it’s my first WorldTour podium, so I’m really happy with the result, especially when you sprint against Lorena and come so close. I thought Lorena was going to win, because the last time I sprinted against her [in Leeuw-Oetingen] she had a gap of two metres. And now it was so close, so I had to still believe in it, and I came closer and closer,” said Moors after the race.

Moors and Balsamo had been part of a group of 14 riders that got away on the Baneberg, but the real test for Moors was still ahead. Lidl-Trek sport director Ina-Yoko Teutenberg had pointed out the Kemmelberg in the pre-race meeting, giving Moors the task of being in the first group over the climb, and the 20-year-old did her job very well.

“Ina told me in the meeting I needed to be in this attack, so on the climb I was thinking, ‘you need to be in this attack, or Ina will be angry’. And I did it. We were in a perfect position because Balsamo was in the group behind me, so I could save myself a bit in the beginning in this first group,” said Moors.

The cross-tailwind after the Kemmelberg helped the group of five stay away despite a chasing peloton, and in the last kilometres, UAE Team ADQ’s Eleonora Gasparrini launched two attacks to anticipate a sprint.

Moors explained that she hadn’t planned any late attacks of her own and was banking on her sprint.

“I was already digging quite deep, so I was happy just following. I was like, ‘Lorena needs to do it because she’s the strongest', and then she closed the gaps, so I was in a perfect position, and I think I did everything I could,” Moors said.

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