Netherlands Road Championships: Lorena Wiebes sprints to victory in dominant fashion in crash-hit road race

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) sprinted to a dominant victory in the women's road race at the Dutch national championships, winning by a big margin in Ede after surviving a crash-hit final 10km.

No one could match the speed an acceleration of the European champion in the final straight, with Charlotte Kool (Picnic PostNL) finishing second, several metres behind Wiebes. Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished fast to take third, just pipping Puck Langenbarg (Fenix-Deceuninck Development) on the line.

Langenbarg took fourth, which earnt her the U23 national title.

A big crash in the middle of the peloton with 6km to go took out many of the favourites, including Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), who struggled to get back into contention with SD Worx-Protime setting a furious pace towards the sprint.

Another crash in the final kilometre saw Wiebes' teammate TT champion Mischa Bredewold hit the deck, but that clearly didn't cost the Dutchwoman who powered to her second elite national title.

"The team worked super hard for it. The girls did a good lead out," Wiebes told NOS. "I expected Charlotte Kool to go early, but luckily I was able to catch it well and continue. I saw it happening, so I was able to react quickly. I was still able to tell [Femke Gerritse] that I would pass on the right, so that she wouldn’t close the gap."

"In the last twenty kilometers, the girls rode full throttle at the front, if not longer," she added. "Then you feel the pressure to finish it off, but it worked out perfectly."

Despite the largely flat course around Ede and its surrounds, the race was very aggressive and hard to control, with riders like Vos kicking off the attacks in the second half of the race, as many riders tried to force a finish that would be more selective than just a sprint.

A chaotic final 20km saw an ever-changing rotation of escapees as dozens riders tried to attack, and many were away for a few kilometres at a time.

Four riders went into the final 10km ahead of the bunch – Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike), Daniek Hengeveld (Ceratizit), Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) and Mareille Meijering (Movistar) – but they never had a big margin, and the work of SD Worx-Protime saw them caught ahead of the finish, with the dominant Dutch team getting the sprint finish they wanted.

The big crash in the finale ended the chances of multiple riders, including Vollering and Vos, but by that point it was likely too late for any more attacks.

This is Wiebes fourth win in a row, in a winning streak that started on the final stage of the Tour of Britain Women, and saw her take wins at Dwars door het Hageland and the Copenhagen Sprint as she continues as the undisputed best sprinter in the women's peloton.

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