Wiebes beats Balsamo to win European Championships road race

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In what was a day for the sprinters, Lorena Wiebes captured the elite women's road race title at the European Championships. Through pure speed and power, Wiebes out-sprinted Italians, world champion Elisa Balsamo and Rachele Barbieri on the city streets in Munich.

The peloton caught a three-rider breakaway in the closing kilometres of the race as the nations with the fastest sprinters set up for a bunch sprint.  

It was the Dutch versus Italy in the battle for positions as both nations displayed the most powerful and organised lead-out trains, each with seven riders in the final kilometre.

As they rounded a 180 roundabout, it was Italy that came out with five riders followed by the Netherlands that still had four riders in the mix. 

Italy's train looked set to deliver Balsamo to the victory, however, Wiebes' teammates dropped her off, perfectly, on to the world champion's wheel. 

Wiebes launched her sprint early and wide to the left side of the road, and in a head-to-head race to the line, she held off Balsamo to take the European Championships title.

“As expected the Italian train came up late in the final kilometre. We were on the left and they were on the right and I jumped across to them after some strong work by the team, and Floortje [Mackaij] and Charlotte [Kool] in the finale. I then just gave it everything to the line," Wiebes said.

"We really worked as a team and we had a really clear plan. The pressure was on today but I’ve had good practice at being the finisher with Team DSM so I just tried to stay calm. It’s special to take the win for the national team and win the jersey.”

How it unfolded

The women's field tackled a 128km route that started in Landsberg am Lech and traveled southeast toward Seeshaupt and then northward to finishing on circuits in Munich. 

The undulating route offered an ascent of 1.3km with an average gradient of 6%, located at the 86km mark, and then the field entered the circuit at the 94km mark, completing two and half laps for a total of 26km of technical city circuits.

Omer Shapira (Israel) was the first rider to make a move, joined by Urška Žigart (Slovenia), and then Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France) and Elena Cecchini (Italy), and Stine Borgli (Norway).

Although the gap stretched out to two minute, the Dutch team, in the interest of a bunch sprint for Wiebes, pulled the race back together.

Three riders led the race by 16 seconds into the final kilometres; Lea Lin Teutenberg (Germany), Sheyla Gutierrez (Spain) and Juliette Labous (France).

The catch was made inside the final kilometres as the Dutch and Italian squads proved strongest in the lead-out bringing their sprinters into position for the bunch sprint.

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