Marta Bastianelli wins Omloop van het Hageland

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Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) was the fastest of the breakaway sprint to win Omloop van het Hageland. The Italian won the race after a perfectly-timed sprint to beat Emma Norsgaard Bjerg (Movistar) and Floortje Mackaij (Team DSM).

"On the roads of Belgium you always need to be very careful, you have to ride at the head of the group and watch out for the most important breakaways. We risked several times to stay out, but I had great teammates like Laura [Tomasi] and Alessia [Patuelli] who pushed at full force along with Eugenia [Bujak] to close the most important breakaways. Sofia and I were careful in the decisive breaks," Bastianelli said.

"On the final stretch of the pavé this breakaway went away and I managed to get into it and we made it to the finish. The finale was deadly because in the last 5 or 6 kilometres there were a continuous series of attacks and counter-attacks by my opponents and so I had to close several times, fighting also against the wind. I knew that I had to grit my teeth and hold on to do a good sprint. I got on Norsgaard's wheel, she was a bit closed in on the barriers and I went all the way to the left to get out of the confusion and I managed to win. I'd like to thank the whole team and hopefully we can continue like this at the Strade Bianche and the next races."

The second race of the opening weekend of the Spring Classics, after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, the 1.1 race offered the women's field a 128km race between Tienen and Tielt-Winge.

Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo), Alicia Gonzalez (Movistar), Marlen Reusser (SD Worx), and later joined by Charlotte Kool (Team DSM), formed an early breakaway and gained just under a minute on the field.

The quartet were reeled back and the race animated on the front, there was a reshuffling of a new breakaway until it settled to 10 riders with a sizeable gap to include Emma Norsgaard Bjerg and Aude Biannic (Movistar), Pfeiffer Georgi and Floortje Mackaij (Team DSM), Valerie Demey (Liv Racing Xstra), Shirin Van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo), Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ), Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitainie Futuroscope), Elena Cecchini and Chantal van den Broek Blaak (SD Worx) inside 30km from the finish.

The 10-rider group's lead stretched out to 20 seconds, but with BikeExchange missing in the move, Teniel Campbell put in a big effort try and close the gap to the escapees.

The gap grew to 40 seconds, however, in the final 20km, as attacks ignited from the breakaway on the final lap of the race. Gaps opened over the steep climbs on route but they came back together on the flatter sections.

Mackaij launched a big attack with 5km to go and pushed her lead out to 10 seconds but van den Broek Blaak put in an effort to bring her back inside 3km to the line.

Georgi was the next to make a move, counter attacking her teammate, but it was Norsgaard Bjerg who shutdown that move inside 2km.

Van den Broek Blaak led the race into the final kilometre, though Georgi put in one last attack, the breakaway group set up for a sprint with 800 metres to go.

Van den Broek Blaak started her sprint early, but it was too far out, and Bastianelli stormed passed her to take the victory ahead of Norsgaard and Mackaij.