Baloise Ladies Tour: Lorena Wiebes secures overall with sprint win in finale

Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime) captured the overall title at the 2024 Baloise Ladies Tour by winning another bunch sprint, this time the finale on stage 4. Across the six stages, Wiebes dominated the Belgian stage race with five victories.

Lotta Henttala (EF Education-Cannondale) led the field sprint behind for second place and Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) took third. 

Finishing safely in the field sprint, Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) held her podium spot for second place overall. Thalita De Jong (Lotto-Dstny) took third overall with a top-10 finish on Sunday. 

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Wiebes got a clear opening when the lead-outs from EF Education and DSM-Firmenich PostNL seemed to move into each other in the final bend and lost momentum, then Wiebes blasted away at the front.

The final stage of the Baloise Ladies Tour began under cloudy skies for a total of 116.9km, with two intermediate sprints on narrow roads and open sections with wind. While Wiebes had all but sewn up the GC with her double wins on Saturday, the four positions behind her were separated by just four seconds.

On the fourth of seven laps of a 16.5km flat circuit around Deinze, seven riders had a gap of 20 seconds - Femke Beuling (VolkerWessels), Alicia González (Lifeplus-Wahoo), Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Coop-Repsol), Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale), Christine Majerus (SD Worx-Protime), Wiktoria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) and Cecilia Van Zuthem (Fenix-Deceuninck).

The peloton would not take any risks with the breakaway and made the catch on the third lap.

A solo attack was then launched by Scarlett Souren (VolkersWessels Women’s Pro) and she moved out to a 30-second lead on the penultimate lap. With 13.5km to go, the peloton, led by SD Worx-Protime and DSM-Firmenich PostNL, had her in their sights.

Rather than fall back into the bunch, Souren accelerated and five others - Wilma Aintila (Lotto-Dstny), Anneke Dijkstra (VolkersWessels Women’s Pro), Megan Jastrab (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Marie Schreiber (SD Worx-Protime) and Marion Norbert Riberolle (Fenix-Deceuninck Devo) joined her at the front of the race, holding a slim 10-second gap with 7.5km to race.

The flat roads and intense pace combined for the breakaway to be absorbed, a few attacks then failed and it was full steam ahead for the peloton for the final kilometres. 

SD Worx-Protime lined out at the front, but EF Education took over on a final right-hand corner. Wiebes accelerated to the front on a sweeping left-hand bend and sailed away at the front of the field for an uncontested win by several bike lengths.

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