Rivera wins Tour of Flanders Women

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Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) won the Tour of Flanders Women with a perfectly timed sprint in Oudenaarde, seeing off the challenge of Gracie Elvin (Orica-Scott) and Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans).

The race was animated by an elite break containing  Elisa Longo Borghini, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten, but they were caught on the run-in, and Rivera, helped by teammate Ellen van Dijk, delivered a fine sprint to claim the win.

The victory is Rivera's second for her new team after she won Trofeo Alfredo Binda last month.

A 15-rider chase group caught a four-rider breakaway with one kilometre remaining to set the stage for a reduced bunch gallop. Around 300 metres from the finish line, Rivera opened the sprint and held on to take the biggest victory of her young career.

"This is unbelievable," said Rivera in her first post-race television interview. "I can't begin to explain it yet."

It's the second Women's WorldTour victory for Rivera who moved from UnitedHeathcare to Team Sunweb at the start of the 2017 season. She credits her team, particularly 2014 Ronde van Vlaanderen winner Ellen van Dijk, with her newfound success in Europe.

"When your team goes all out for you like that, you definitely have to do your job," said Rivera. "The pressure was on."

How it unfolded

The women's peloton rolled out for the start of Ronde van Vlaanderen under sunny skies from the market square of Oudenaarde. Sunday’s menu included the longest route yet: a 153-kilometre course with 12 climbs, some cobbled, and five additional cobbled sections. Like the men's event, the women's race finished back in Oudennarde.

There were several early escape attempts, but none of the breakaways managed to gain any traction. The race came to life over the infamous Muur of Geraardsbergen with five climbs and 60 kilometres remaining.

Rozanne Slik (Team Sunweb) slipped away from the 50-rider selection that had formed over the Muur. She gained a 90-second advantage and spent 20 kilometres away before she was caught on the Kanarieberg.

Kasia Niewiadoma (WM3) countered Slik's catch. The attack sounded an alarm amongst the leaders. Lizzie Deignan (Boels-Dolmans) immediately jumped on the move. Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5), Ashleigh Moolman Paiso (Cervelo-Bigla) and Elena Cecchini (Canyon SRAM) followed. A stretched out and slimmed down bunch quickly caught the quartet but damage had been done. Where there had once been 50 up front, only 30-odd riders remained. 

Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) led that group into the Kruisberg where her teammate Anna van der Breggen launched an attack that inspired what looked like the race-winning move. The Olympic road champion had Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini and Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-Scott) for company. The quartet traded pulls and built up a significant advantage.

Annemiek Van Vleuten, Elisa Longo Borghini, Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Anna Van Der Breggen (Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

In their wake, a chase group formed that included Rivera and Van Dijk. Boels-Dolmans and Canyon SRAM each had three riders in the second group. Cervelo-Bigla had two.

With Canyon SRAM and Sunweb assuming the lion's share of the chase work and the gap holding fairly steady, it initially looked like the winner would come from the four out front – until Van der Breggen, on orders from the team car, stopped working. Lacking teammates in the group behind, Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma fully committed to the escape. Van Vleuten also continued to trade turns.

The psychological blow of Van der Breggen's lack of cooperation along with one less set of legs to share the workload spelled the end of the escape. With Van Dijk on the front, the chase group swallowed up the escape under the flamme rouge.

"From the moment that [sport director] Hans [Timmermans] made the call to go full gas for me, Ellen took charge of the pace," said Rivera. "Ellen chased it down crazy hard, and we also had some help from Canyon. We were committed to the plan of sprinting."

That commitment was well-rewarded as Rivera took the win.

"The sprint was absolutely thrilling," she said. "I still feel like I am dreaming."

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