Annemiek van Vleuten wins women's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

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Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) took her first victory as the new world champion at the Spring Classic's opener Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday. The versatile Dutch rider attacked a select lead group over the Muur-Kapelmuur and soloed to the win in Ninove.

Chantal Van den Broek-Blaak (Boels-Dolmans) started her chase-group sprint early but was passed by Marta Bastianelli (Ale BTC Ljubljana) in second and Floortje Mackaij (Sunweb) third. Van den Broek-Blaak had to settle for fourth place while Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) finished fifth.

"I can’t believe this has happened because I am always such a slow starter and I know I usually grow into the season. So to start like this, I really didn’t expect to be solo over the Muur, I thought more girls would follow me," Van Vleuten said in a press statement.

"If you win solo you can really enjoy the last kilometres and I really enjoyed those moments today, it is my first win here and in the rainbow jersey is an incredible feeling."

How it unfolded

The Spring Classics traditionally kick off at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad where the women race 127km from Gent to Ninove.

It's a notoriously tough race held under the colder, and often times rainy, conditions of northern Europe. The race is even more challenging because of the 10 climbs on route: Leberg (45km), Wolvenberg (57km), Molenberg (69.5km), Rekelberg (83.5km), Elvererberg (90km), Terbosse (94.5km), Eikenmolen (99.5km), Muur-Kapelmuur (109.5km) and the Bosberg (113.5km).

A select group of riders were among the leaders of the race with just 20km to go and they held a 40-second gap over a second chase group.

The lead group included defending champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, Lonneke Uneken, Christine Majerus and Jip van den Bos (Boels Dolmans), world champion Annemiek van Vleuten and Gracie Elvin (Mitchelton-Scott), Marta Bastianelli and Eugenia Bujak (Ale), Hannah Barnes and Elena Cecchini (Canyon-Sram), Jeanne Korevaar (CCC-Liv), Aude Biannic (Movistar), Floortje Mackaij (Sunweb), Ellen van Dijk and Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo), Elizabeth Banks and Marien Reusser (Bigla-Katusha), Abby-Mae Parkinson (Lotto Soudal), , Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel) and Chloe Hosking (Rally Cycling).

Van Vleuten set a fast pace into the bottom of the Muur-Kapelmuur that caused massive separations on the climb. Half way up the climb, and on the steeper cobbled sections, the world champion was alone as she raced past the church at the top.

Mackaij tried to follow Van Vleuten, and for a short time covered the ascent at just a few seconds behind, however, by the time she crested the top, the remaining riders of the original front group caught back up.

Van Vleuten’s gap pushed out to 15 seconds as she descended off the Muur-Kapelmuur and raced along the flat sections into the final climb of the Bosberg, which is a straight climb with pitches as steep as 12 per cent near the top. 

Five riders pushed to try and catch Van Vleuten on the last climb; Van den Broek-Blaak, Bujak, van Dijk, Bastianelli, Mackaij and Banks.

Van Dijk attached the chase group with 12km to go that caused Banks and Bujak to struggle off the back.  

Four riders carried on in pursuit of Van Vleuten. Van den Broek-Blaak, van Dijk, Bastianelli and Mackaij work together to try and catch the former two-time time trial world champion, Van Vleuten, but their efforts were not successful.

Van Vleuten’s gap continued to push out second-by-second and she raced into the finish in Ninove with her first victory of the season.

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