As the world champion's run of success continues, cycling fans are watching the cobbled Classics heat up as the calendar gets closer to the two biggest rounds at Tour of Flanders on April 3 and Paris-Roubaix Femmes on April 16.
The fifth round of the 2022 Women's WorldTour is complete, and Cyclingnews looks back at some of the biggest takeaways from Gent-Wevelgem Women.
Bet on Balsamo in Flanders
Elisa Balsamo, Elisa Longo Borghini and Ellen van Dijk at Gent-Wevelgem (Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) has had a run of success that many riders could only dream of in a professional cycling career and while wearing the rainbow jersey, too. The Italian’s winning streak on the Women’s WorldTour at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Classic Brugge-De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem begs the question - will she be unbeatable at Tour of Flanders?
Her all-around strength across the punchy climbs and decisive cobbles combined with a ferocious sprint saw her beat compatriots Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) and Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) at Trofeo Binda. A last-minute change to the Trek-Segafredo’s plan, when Chloe Hosking was held up by a late-race crash, saw her take a surprise win at Brugge-De Panne ahead of Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) and Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ). In Wevelgem, it was a closer sprint with elbows out to maintain her prime position, as Balsamo launched her sprint and crossed the line first ahead of Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) and Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ceratizit-WNT).
Balsamo benefited from a powerful Trek-Segafredo team at Gent-Wevelgem. After the final ascent of the Kemmelberg she had the support of time trial world champion Ellen van Dijk, Elisa Longo Borghini and Shirin van Anrooij in the final 33km of the race. A moment of panic saw Balsamo caught out behind a lead group that had formed but Van Dijk dropped back to close the gap and the team’s sports director Ina Teutenberg kept everyone calm from the team car.
“Today, I won my favourite race,” Balsamo said. “It’s a dream come true … I have a little bit of pressure when I have such a good team working for me, but I am feeling good. It seems the work I did this winter is paying off. We won this race because we were the best team and have the best team spirit – we are one team for one result.”
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Impeccable teamwork and a fierce, winning sprint make Balsamo the favourite for the upcoming Tour of Flanders.
De Moeren, Ossuaire Kemmelberg
The peloton on the Kemmelberg at Gent-Wevelgem (Image credit: Getty Images)
Flanders Classics introduced the windswept De Moeren and the tougher Ossuaire side of the Kemmelberg to the women’s Gent-Wevelgem but neither seem to have made an impact on the outcome of the race as some 40 riders finished in a reduced bunch sprint.
The peloton normally faces strong crosswinds through the northern aspect of the route that heads toward the North Sea. Such winds have traditionally wrecked havoc on the peloton during the men’s race, tearing gaps through the field and causing multiple echelons to form. However, there were no such winds to contend with this year as the riders woke up to calm, mild weather conditions.
The women then raced a sequence of seven climbs Scherpenberg, Baneberg, Monteberg, Kemmelberg (Belvedere), and again over the Scherpenberg, Baneberg, and the new Kemmelberg (Ossuaire side).
The Ossuaire side of the prized cobbled ascent is the steeper and longer side and has a maximum gradient of 23 per cent, but it may not have been as decisive as first expected. There were attacks but following the descent it was clear that a bunch sprint would once again take place win Wevelgem.
Questions understandably swirled when Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad was announced as one of the 14 Women’s WorldTeams for the 2022 season. The team was a surprise inclusion to the sport governing body’s list of applicants last fall and not an obvious choice to step up to the top-tier with no big new signings, but they contracted a mix of first-year professionals and rely on some experienced riders such as Olga Zabelinskaya.
In fact, the team secured only two victories last season by Russia’s Tamara Dronova-Balabolina at the Grand Prix Erciyes - Mimar Sinan in Turkey, and she won the time trial title at the Russian Championships. Zabelinskaya picked up two victories also while racing for her Uzbekistan national team.
The team chose not to compete in the Opening Weekend’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Omloop van het Hageland, instead opting for a training camp ahead of their debut at Strade Bianche where Dronova-Balabolina was their top placer in 43, and the rest of the team didn’t finish. They then skipped Ronde van Drenthe, but raced Trofeo Binda where Dronova-Balabolina was 32nd and Brugge-De Panne where Hannah Buch was the highest finisher in 59th.
It comes a welcome surprise for the team that Dronova-Balabolina finished eighth place at Gent-Wevelgem. A top-10 finish at the cobbled classic can be no unexpected stroke of good luck, either.
The 159km race saw the addition of the Ossuaire side of the Kemmelberg with only some 40 strongest riders on the day racing the final toward Wevelgem. Her four other teammates didn’t finish the race but Dronova-Balabolina has given the team their first respectable result of the season.
SD Worx burn matches
Lotte Kopecky and SD Worx after Gent-Wevelgem (Image credit: Getty Images)
An aggressive racing strategy may have worked for SD Worx at Strade Bianche but the same tactics saw the team come up short at Gent-Wevelgem. Belgian Champion Lotte Kopecky, who spectacularly won in Siena earlier in March, finished in fourth place in Wevelgem saying she was lacking freshness for the bunch sprint.
It was the third fourth place in a row for SD Worx after Chantal van den Broek-Black at Trofeo Binda and Lonnie Uneken at Brugge-De Panne.
Sports Director Lars Boom defended the team’s aggressive tactics, saying, “We could try to make the race as selective and hard as possible or we could just ride to the finish and sprint. We chose the first. The hill zone is 30 kilometres from the finish. That makes it difficult to create a group with strong riders that want to ride full speed towards the finish line. In the sprint, Elisa Balsamo is simply the fastest at the moment."
Indeed, Kopecky, Van den Broek-Blaak and Marlen Reusser were part of separate but unsuccessful breakaways. Following the successive ascents, some 40 riders raced toward Wevelgem and SD Worx had the numbers with Kopecky, van den Broek-Blaak, Uneken, Reusseur, Elena Cecchini and Christine Majerus, but perhaps lacked some organization and speed in the end.
"I don't blame Marlen,” Kopecky said of her lead-out. “I actually wanted to come from Balsamo's wheel, but I couldn't find her. So I was a bit too far back. Suddenly I saw my teammates. They brought me back to the front and set up a lead-out. I started the sprint myself, which was not according to our original plan. I came into the wind a little too early because of that. In the end, I just missed that little bit of speed to really have a shot at the win."
Van Vleuten, Vollering, Uttrup Ludwig emerge for Flanders
Annemiek van Vleuten wins 2021 Tour of Flanders (Image credit: Getty Images)
Gent-Wevelgem marks the first of three Flanders Classics events held within seven days as the calendar approaches the mid-week 1.Pro Dwars door Vlanderen on Wednesday and the prestigious Tour of Flanders on next Sunday.
The most recent rounds of the Women’s WorldTour have included big-name riders like Balsamo, Emma Norsgaard (Movistar), Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ), Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx), to name a few. But some of the contenders who have opted to skip earlier races are beginning to emerge on the run-in to Flanders.
Marianne Vos, who finished second at Gent-Wevelgem, hasn’t raced since the opening round of the top-tier series at Strade Bianche held in the first weekend of March. The current cyclo-cross world champion had to skip Trofeo Alfredo Binda due to illness and skipped Brugge-De Panne for the second year. She finished second to Balsamo in the sprint in Wevelgem, which bodes well for her form ahead of Flanders
Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) has also opted not to complete since Strade Bianche, where she finished second to Lotte Kopecky in Siena, and train at altitude on Tenerife. Emma Norsgaard has led the team to a sixth place at Brugge-De Panne and fifth at Gent-Wevelgem. The team will be reinforced with Van Vleuten at Dwars door Vlaanderen and Tour of Flanders, this week, both races she won last year.
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) and Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange) will be back to racing at Dwars door Vlaanderen and Tour of Flanders, having missed Brugge-De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem. SD Worx will add Demi Vollering alongside Kopecky and van den Broek-Black to their powerful roster in Flanders.
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
