Belgian Road Championships: Justine Ghekiere flies to road race victory with late attack on cobbles

Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) claimed the women's road race title at the Belgian road championships with a late flying attacking in the final kilometre in Binche, disrupting Lotte Kopecky's (SD Worx-Protime) hopes of a third-consecutive title.

Following Ghekiere's late move on the final stretch of cobbles, Fien Van Eynde (Fenix-Deceuninck Development Team) claimed second, whilst Fleur Moors (LIdl-Trek) sprinted to third from the bunch.

It was a tactical masterclass of a day for AG Insurance-Soudal, who placed two strong riders in the early break, forcing other teams and riders into the chase – with the catch only made with 4km to go – and opening things up for an attack from Ghekiere.

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Early on in the 132km race in Belgium, a six-rider group went up the road, made up of Lore De Schepper, Julie Van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal), Audrey De Keersmaeker (Lotto), Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck), Marieke Meert (VolkerWessels) and Annelies Nijssen (CyclingTeam Van Eyck/Belco). They were allowed to build up a gap of two minutes, with not many teams to control things.

With 50km to go, Kopecky started to push the chase, and despite not getting very much help, she did – almost single-handedly – bring it down to 30 seconds, with some help from riders like Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Febe Jooris (UAE Team ADQ), though the world champion also had to police various counter-attacks in the bunch.

Despite getting close, though, it was hard to make the final catch with so little cooperation, and with 17km to go, the four-time Belgian champion seemed to throw in the towel, not keen to close the gap for the whole group.

It was thanks to Claes that the catch was eventually made, just 4km from the finish, with De Schepper the last rider trying to push on from the break, ultimately setting up for Ghekiere's move.

Just outside the final kilometre, Ghekiere made a last-minute attack on a stretch of cobbles, taking Van Eynde with her, but handily outsprinting the younger rider on the line to claim her first Belgian champion's jersey.

Moors, who had been glued to Kopecky's wheel all day, sprinted to third, with the world champion not even in the top 10 after spending so much energy as the only rider chasing.

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