Lucinda Brand wins Baloise Ladies Tour overall title

By published

Jelena Eric captures stage 4 victory in Deinze from breakaway

Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek)
Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jump to:

The breakaway made it to the line by inches to sprint for the win on Sunday's final stage of the Baloise Ladies Tour. Jelena Eric (Movistar) took the victory after launching her sprint in the final 400 metres and won stage 4 by less than a tyre width in Deinze. Femke De Vries (GT Krush RebelLease) was second on the day and Alice Maria Arzuffi (Ceratizit-WNT) claimed third.

Sprinting from the chasing peloton, Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) crossed the line safely in fourth place and won the overall with a 24-second lead on Norsgaard. Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) finished third in the general classification, tied on time with Emma Norsgaard (Movistar).

“Actually when I got in the break, maybe history repeats so I was really motivated, so it was a good day,” said Eric who last won a stage at Baloise Ladies Tour four years ago.

“In the last kilometre, we had some attacks so we were with gaps. With 400 metres in the last corner to the right, I was the first one, I didn’t think about it because the group was coming from behind. I said ‘I go from the front and it is what it is.”

Joining Eric, De Vries and Arzuffi in the day's breakaway were Sofie Van Rooijen (Parkhotel Valkenburg), and Aniek Van Alphen (Fenix-Deceuninck). The five riders pushed the gap to over a minute before the field started to reel them in.  The breakaway, down to four riders after Van Rooijen fell off the pace, only had a 25-second lead with 2.5km to go.

“We were a bit, well not working so well in the last kilometres but I knew that I had some bullets still. I knew I had a chance if I just go a lot in the last kilometre, it’s really technical,” Eric added.

Results

Results powered by FirstCycling

Lyne Lamoureux
Lyne Lamoureux

Lyne has been involved in professional cycling for more than 15 years in both news reporting and sports marketing. She founded Podium Insight in 2008, quickly becoming a trusted source for news of the North American professional cycling world. She was the first to successfully use social media to consistently provide timely and live race updates for all fans. She is proud to have covered men's and women's news equally during her tenure at the helm of the site. Her writing has appeared on Cyclingnews and other news sites. 

Latest on Cyclingnews