Bastianelli wins Omloop van het Hageland

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Marta Bastianelli brought her new team Virtu Cycling their first victory of the season at Omloop van het Hageland on Sunday. The European champion sprinted for the win ahead of Lotta Lepistö (Trek-Segafredo), while Leah Kirchmann (Sunweb) finished third.

Omloop van het Hageland formed part of the opening weekend for the elite women's peloton, held the day after the kick-off Omloop Het Nieuwsbald in Belgium.

The women raced 131km that starts in Tienen with one larger 52km loop before six smaller 13km loops in Tielt-Winge. There were slight variations to the loops, however, removing a section of cobbles and a revision of the final stretch back to the finish line. The riders faced five climbs and a series of intermediate sprint, but the race was regarded as one for the sprinters, making Bastianelli one of the clear favourites.

The race started with a breakaway within the first 30km that included three riders; Natalie Van Gogh (Biehler Pro Cycling), Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) and Barbara Guarischi (Virtu). There was a reshuffling of the peloton and the lead group, and several attacks saw Movistar's Malgorzata Jasinska and Trek-Segafredo’s Ruth Winder take the lead with 80km to go.

There were splits in the main field as Team Virtu led the pace-setting at the front to successfully close down the gap to the two breakaway riders, working for their sprinter Bastianelli.

Trek-Segafredo's Tayler Wiles and Soraya Paladin (Ale Cipollini) were the next to attack but they were brought back before the Roeselberg climb on the local circuits.

With 50km to go, and the third lap of the smaller circuits, Mitchelton-Scott controlled the speeds among the in-tact peloton. Over the top of the climb, Sunweb set off an attack but was quickly followed by Wiles and Jasinska, along with riders from Mitchelton-Scott and CCC-Liv. The peloton was all back together coming through the finish line in Tielt-Winge, and although there were some attacks, it was Franziska Koch (Mexx-Watersley International) who cleared the field in a solo effort.

Koch pushed her lead out to just over a minute but with 30km to go, two laps, the pace increased behind with teams like Ale Cipollini and Mitchelton-Scott chasing, her gap dropped but held steady at 40 seconds in the last 25km. The German rider was eventually caught by the field with under 20km to go.

Lucy Kennedy (Mitchelton-Scott) drove the pace over the small climbs on course, causing the field to move single file into the gutter, but her efforts weren't enough to stop Sunweb and Trek-Segafredo from attacking on the main climb. But while Trek-Segafredo moved several riders to the front, the attacking momentarily stopped, and the field merged back together.

Sunweb's new hire Susanne Andersen jumped but Trek-Segafredo's Wiles and Ellen van Dijk were attentive at the front and brought her back quickly.

Movistar's French champion Aude Biannic attacked, too, but although she gained a small gap, she was also reeled back in by the efforts of teams with strong sprinters.

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