Kirsten Wild wins Gent-Wevelgem women's race

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Kirsten Wild (WNT-Rotor) won the women's Gent-Wevelgem in a mass sprint. Up-and-coming Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) took second place, Letizia Paternoster (Trek-Segafredo) was third. Fourth-placed Marta Bastianelli (Team Virtu Cycling) defendes her lead in the UCI Women's WorldTour, Wiebes now leads the youth ranking.

Starting in Ypres and finishing in Wevelgem, the race covered 136.9 km. The main difficulties were the Baneberg, Kemmelberg, and Monteberg, each of which had to be climbed twice, with two "Plugstreet" gravel sections in between. Another difficulty was the wind, blowing hard from a northeasterly direction.

The first hour of racing was very fast with a 43 km/h average. There were no breakaways, but several riders were taken out by crashes. The pace over the Baneberg and the cobbled Kemmelberg as well as the descent from the Kemmelberg strung out the peloton. 77 km from the finish, Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) tried a first attack on the Monteberg that was quickly neutralised.

The big teams took charge on the gravel Plugstreets. A high pace set by Boels Dolmans, Team Sunweb, and CCC-Liv caused splits in the peloton, but the dropped riders could come back on afterwards. Anna Trevisi (Alé Cipollini) made two attempts at a solo breakaway; when she had been reeled in, her teammate Romy Kasper tried her luck. The German held a 21-second gap over the Baneberg, but Mitchelton-Scott brought her back with 42 km to go, shortly before the second ascent of the Kemmelberg.

Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) led the peloton onto the steep cobbles, then Marta Bastianelli and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) took over at the front. At the top, Bastianelli and Niewiadoma had a small gap to the rest, and the peloton fractured in the technical descent.

Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) and Demi Vollering (Parkhotel Valkenburg) brought a group of about 30 riders up to the front duo just before the Monteberg where Moolman-Pasio put in an attack but did not get away.

Just over 30 km remained after the Monteberg. Sofia Bertizzolo (Team Virtu Cycling) went on a solo attack, with Daniela Reis (Doltcini-Van Eyck) and Elizabeth Holden (Drops) trying to bridge to her. 26 km from the finish, Bertizzolo and Reis held an advantage of 27 seconds while Holden was back in the peloton that had grown to more than 50 riders.

Bertizzolo and Reis still had a small gap going through Ypres but were caught with 22 km to go. Team Sunweb tried to put the race in the gutter and form echelons on the stretch towards Wevelgem, but the wind did not come from the perfect direction for this.

Instead, the headwind meant that while there was no shortage of attacks in the final 20 kilometres, nobody could really get away. The most promising move came from Sarah Roy (Mitchelton), Jip van den Bos (Boels Dolmans), and Demi de Jong (Lotto Soudal Ladies) who held onto a small gap for several kilometres before being caught 5 km from the line.

Trek-Segafredo's Lotta Lepistö led the peloton onto the finishing straight with her teammate Letizia Paternoster on her wheel and Bastianelli, Kirsten Wild, and Lorena Wiebes behind the young Italian. Wild launched her sprint with 200 metres to go and held off all challengers to win half a bikelength ahead of Wiebes, with Paternoster just beating Bastianelli for third place.

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