Marianne Vos wins Gent-Wevelgem Women

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Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma) has won the women's Gent-Wevelgem as she was fastest to the line in the sprint of a reduced peloton, beating Lotte Kopecky (Liv Racing) and Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT).

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) and Soraya Paladin (Liv Racing) attacked from a small front group after the Trek-Segafredo team had split the peloton in the crosswinds after Ypres, but they were caught less than 500 metres from the finish.

"It has to settle a bit first. When you then look back and see your teammates cheering as they cross the line, it is fantastic. It was a hard, nervous race, always fighting for position, and in the final the two riders in front who had a nice gap. When your teammates work so hard, you really want to finish it off, but it was an elite group left for the sprint," Vos said in a post-race interview.

"The route is not to the advantage of the escapees here, as a chasing group you can always see a kilometre ahead, but of course Longo Borghini is incredibly strong, and Paladin, too. When they get a gap, you know that you cannot close it just like that.

"I knew that it would not be easy. The team had confidence in me, and I knew that if I launched the sprint first, I had a chance, so I tried to stay as calm as possible and jump first."

Jumbo-Visma make it two from two in Belgium as Dutchwoman triumphs in sprint finish to win the women's Gent-Wevelgem and Wout Van Aert won the men's Gent-Wevelgem.

How it unfolded

The race was lengthened by a few kilometres due to a fire in Menen on the normal route to the finish in Wevelgem, putting the total distance at 142.8 km with seven climbs and three Plugstreet gravel sections.

There were a few attacks in the early hours, with Marieke de Groot (Doltcini-Van Eyck-Proximus) particularly active, but none of the breakaways lasted for long. The peloton split in the crosswinds several times, but with more than 100km to go, the first echelons did not press on, and the race came back together.

A front group of 17 riders emerged after the first passage over the Kemmelberg, 65km from the line, but again the action settled down, and things had come together before the Plugstreet gravel sections where the most noticeable event was a puncture for Paladin as nobody wanted to string out the race on the gravel.

A crash with 45km to go took down Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo), Kirsten Wild (Ceratizit-WNT), and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Plantur-Pura), among others. Although they got back up again, none of them were able to play a role in the final.

On the second ascent of the Kemmelberg, 37km from the finish, Longo Borghini pushed the pace from the start, splitting the race and taking Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) with her over the top. A group of five with Vos, Kopecky, Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo), Amy Pieters (Team SD Worx), and Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) followed a few seconds later, with another group of 13 riders behind that.

The chasing group with Vos bridged the small gap, and after a few kilometres, the next group also came back. Vos’ teammate Anna Henderson attacked solo and was let go by the group, building an advantage of over 20 seconds as she reached Ypres.

Turning eastwards to Wevelgem after Ypres, there was now a cross-tailwind, and Trek-Segafredo immediately put the race in the gutter. The first echelon of eight riders with Van Dijk, Longo Borghini, Lizzie Deignan (all Trek-Segafredo), Pieters, Christine Majerus (both Team SD Worx), Elisa Balsamo and Vittoria Guazzini (both Valcar-Travel & Service) as well as Paladin quickly caught Henderson.

At the 20-kilometre mark, Longo Borghini accelerated away from the group, with her teammates backing off, and only Paladin was able to jump across before the gap had become too big. Six kilometres later, the gap had increased to 24 seconds as the chase group was absorbed by the next group on the road, forming a peloton of 30-40 riders. Longo Borghini and Paladin defended their advantage at just under 30 seconds into the final ten kilometres when an exhausted Paladin could no longer pull as hard as the Women’s WorldTour leader.

With the chase behind now organised and all teams except Trek-Segafredo and Liv Racing now working together, the gap was reduced to only a few seconds entering the final kilometre, and despite Longo Borghini’s best efforts, she and Paladin were caught on the finishing stretch, setting up a sprint for the win.

Vos went early at the 300-metre mark and held off the rest of the field to win the women’s Gent-Wevelgem, making it two from two for Team Jumbo-Visma after Wout van Aert had won the men’s edition. With her victory, Vos also took the lead in the UCI Women’s WorldTour ranking while Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team), tenth in the sprint, extended her lead in the Women’s WorldTour youth ranking.