Gent-Wevelgem Women: Lorena Wiebes beats Elisa Balsamo in sprint photo finish

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Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won Gent-Wevelgem Women in a photo finish, outsprinting Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) with a perfectly-timed bike throw after the final attacker, Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez), was brought back on the final kilometre. Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) took third place.

When world champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) attacked on the final ascent of the Kemmelberg, only Wiebes and Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) could stay with her, but the three riders did not push their advantage, and the chasing peloton came back with s26km to go.

None of the attacks that followed on the run-in to Wevelgem lasted long, Lidl-Trek closing down most of them, and in the end, Kopecky led out Wiebes for a sprint victory.

“I am really happy to finally win it, it took a few years. The team did an amazing job, we tried to make it a hard race, and we succeeded, but it wasn’t hard enough. I made some mistakes in the sprint, but luckily it was just enough,” said Wiebes after taking her first Gent-Wevelgem victory in her sixth participation.

“I had a little bit of a premonition, but I couldn’t be 100% sure. Better not to celebrate than to celebrate too early,” Wiebes looked back on the sprint where neither she nor Balsamo knew who had won until they saw the photo-finish.

“It was a great lead-out. I had 100% confidence in Lotte. We have done great things already this season, and next week it will be for Lotte again,” Wiebes promised to repay the favour to her teammate in the Tour of Flanders.

How it unfolded

At 171.2 kilometres plus the neutral zone, this was the longest-ever women’s edition of Gent-Wevelgem and one of the longest Women’s WorldTour races so far. Seven climbs in the second half of the race including two different ascents of the Kemmelberg were the main difficulties, and strong westerly winds would also influence the race.

The break of the day consisted of Julie Van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal), Giorgia Vettorello (Roland), Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike), Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility), and Amandine Fouquenet (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), with Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels) bridging to the front on her own. They had a maximum advantage of almost five minutes but were caught with 76km to go, before the start of the hill zone. Although the peloton had been blown apart on the wind-swept De Moeren, the groups quickly came back together.

Kopecky launched a first attack on the Baneberg, the second climb of the day, with Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck), Consonni, Georgi, and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team) following her and Wiebes, Marlen Reusser, Christine Majerus (all SD Worx-Protime) as well as Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) jumping across. However, the race was reset when the peloton caught up after a few kilometres.

On the first Kemmelberg ascent, Kopecky pushed on again with Pieterse, Wiebes, Georgi, and Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) on her wheel. Lidl-Trek teammates Elisa Longo Borghini and Balsamo bridged after the descent, and the group briefly held a 34-second advantage on the peloton but was caught just before the second ascent of the Baneberg.

Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Cannondale) went solo between the Baneberg and Kemmelberg, being caught just before the start of the climb where Kopecky launched another attack on the steep cobbled road. This time, only Wiebes and Georgi could stay with her.

In a chase group of five, Longo Borghini and her teammate Shirin van Anrooij worked hard to make it to the front, bringing Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ), Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime), and Pieterse along.

When the chase group caught the front trio, Swinkels attacked twice but was brought back by Reusser each time. Despite having three riders in a group of eight, SD Worx-Protime did not go all-in on this move, and with Lidl-Trek and DSM-Firmenich PostNL chasing in the peloton, the group was reeled in 26km from the finish.

In the streets of Ypres, Floortje Mackaij (Movistar Team) was the first to attack, and when she was caught, her teammate Emma Norsgaard made her first move. The Danish rider briefly had an eight-second gap before being brought back through the work of Lidl-Trek’s Van Anrooij and Ellen van Dijk.

Mackaij made another attempt to get away, but Van Dijk immediately closed the gap. With four kilometres to go, Norsgaard launched another attack but was reeled in at the three-kilometre mark.

After another brief move by Mackaij, Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) launched her move with 2.5km to go. She quickly got a gap and entered the final kilometre four seconds ahead of the peloton where Majerus, Eugenia Bujak (UAE Team ADQ), and Franziska Koch (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) took over from Van Dijk to catch Brown 500 metres from the line.

Georgi launched her lead-out but had Kopecky on her wheel, who took over with 300 metres to go, dropping off Wiebes 200 metres from the line. Balsamo came out of Wiebes’ slipstream on the last 100 metres and was briefly ahead, but Wiebes timed her bike throw perfectly to win the sprint.

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