D'hoore wins Women's WorldTour race in De Panne

Belgian champion Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton-Scott) won the sprint finish at the Driedaagse De Panne one-day race on Thursday, March 22. D'hoore outsprinted Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) and Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans) after the last escapee, Mieke Kröger (Team Virtu Cycling), was caught on the final kilometre.

Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) didn't race today but stays in the lead of the UCI Women's WorldTour after four races.

Starting in Bruges, the peloton faced 151.7 kilometres to De Panne, mostly close to the Flemish coast. It rained for the first half of the race, and strong winds were certain to play an important part. Fifteen riders formed a break on a cobblestone section about 15km into the race and built an advantage of 1:30 minutes on the peloton.

Though the gap never got larger than 1:45 minutes, the escapees kept the chasers at least a minute behind for most of the race as the peloton was split in crosswinds or slowed down by crashes. Jeanne Korevaar (WaowDeals) was dropped from the break with a mechanical with 97km to go, and Christine Majerus suffered the same fate 40km later, leaving a front group of 13 riders at the 50km mark.

In the open, windswept landscape, the peloton split into several echelons, which raised the speed. The break was only 45 seconds ahead entering the final circuits around De Panne with 34km to go. Sara Penton (Team Virtu Cycling) and Moniek Tenniglo (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) crashed on tram tracks running in the road on the first of two laps, as did several riders in the peloton.

This led to the gap increasing to a full minute again, but only eight riders remained in front. The decisive move included Romy Kasper (Alé Cipollini), Emma Norsgaard Jørgensen (Cervélo-Bigla), Sheyla Gutierrez (Cylance), Gracie Elvin (Mitchelton-Scott), Mieke Kröger (Team Virtu Cycling), Katarzyna Pawlowska (Team Virtu Cycling), Monique van de Ree (WaowDeals), and Eva Buurman (Trek-Drops).

With her team's sprinter Hosking in the peloton, Kasper stopped working with the others, and their advantage was down to 30 seconds at the start of the final lap of 15.3km.

Kröger attacked and opened a gap; she was 22 seconds ahead of the rest of the break with 7.5km to go, the peloton just behind at 29 seconds. Elvin tried a solo chase, but although she got as close as seven seconds behind Kröger, she couldn't bridge the gap and was caught by the chasing peloton at the two-kilometre mark.

It looked as if Kröger might hold off the sprinters, but a long turn by Ellen van Dijk (Sunweb) cut substantially into her lead, and the German was caught with only 700 metres to go.

Lisa Brennauer (Wiggle High5) led out the sprint where Hosking took an early lead, but Jolien D'hoore came from behind with high speed to take a convincing victory.

Majerus sprinted to third after spending 80km in the break and then contributing to the chase once she was back in the peloton.

Although she didn't line-up for the race today, Niewiadoma defended her lead in the UCI Women's WorldTour classification going into the fifth round, Gent-Wevelgem In Flanders Fields on Sunday, March 25.

Listen to D'hoore speak about her victory in the latest Voxwomen video below.

Belgian Champion @JolienDhoore @MitcheltonSCOTT takes her first victory of the season, and it’s on home soil @Driedaagse_

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