Wiebes wins Nokere Koerse voor Dames

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Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM took a comprehensive victory at Nokere Koerse voor Dames, surging away from the peloton on the final ascent of the Nokereberg to go clear in the closing metres of the 126-kilometre race.

The Dutchwomen, also a winner in Nokere in 2019, was by far the strongest on the uphill cobbled run to the line, taking the win by several bike lengths with a seated sprint. 

Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) and Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) rounded out the podium some way back.

"I am very happy to take this win," Wiebes said after the race, the day ahead of her 23rd birthday. "We had some bad luck with the team along the way. Four riders had fallen and three of them had to retire, so we had to have a bit of luck in the course of the race. That turned out all right"

"She is one of the strongest riders on such a finish. So I knew where to sit. I think I've had a good winter. I've had some training sessions on the slopes and that always does me good. It also helps with sprinting speed."

The bunch sprint to the line saw Arianna Fidanza (BikeExchange-Jayco) hit the deck in the closing metres, the last crash in a series that marred the race. Wiebes herself had crashed earlier, falling along with her DSM teammate Georgi Pfeiffer and Elynor Backstedt (Trek-Segafredo).

In the early stages of the race, after Mieke Kröger (Human Powered Health) had stolen away to embark on a solo breakaway, a mass crash saw Shari Bossuyt (Canyon-Sram) and Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo) among the fallers, while at 48 kilometres Jesse Vandenbulcke (Le Col-Wahoo) looked to come off worst in the crash that affected Wiebes, Pfeiffer, Backstedt and numerous others.

A handful of kilometres later, Kröger was brought back, setting up the finale which saw several more falls, though none as large as the previous mass crashes. At 20 to go, the Parkhotel Valkenburg duo of Femke Markus and Mischa Bredewold made an ambitious bid for glory, but the pair were brought back just inside the final 10 kilometres as SD Worx pushed the pace.

The Dutch team were setting it up for their leader Kopecky, who won Strade Bianche earlier in the month, but during the dash to the line, the 26-year-old was simply outpaced by Wiebes. 

Having positioned herself perfectly on the run to the cobbled finish, she moved out of Kopecky's wheel before powering on to a clear and decisive victory, her third of the month.