Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) has big goals ahead in the coming weeks, with the Olympic Games and Tour de France Femmes ahead, but there was a moment on stage 2 of the Baloise Ladies Tour on Friday when it all seemed at risk.
The race leader, who had already swept to victory at the prologue and on stage 1, could be seen moving up toward the front of the peloton on her teammates' wheel as the 1km kite approached to get ready for the sprint into Zulte. However, just moments later Wiebes suddenly shot out the side of the bunch and onto the verge of the wide road.
Something clearly hadn’t gone to plan but it was hard to tell from the footage just what. After the stage, a social media post by SD Worx-Protime filled in some blanks.
"We were in the run-up to the sprint and I was following my lead-out Christine Majerus when I got a heavy push from the left, luckily there was space on the right, or I crashed at high speed," said Wiebes. "My chain was off and I was clicked out. So that was it for riding a sprint today."
Still, there was far more at stake than ruining her perfect run so far at the Belgian race, where Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich Post NL) claimed the stage 2 victory and Wiebes finished eighth but still maintained the overall lead.
"I was very close to a heavy crash," said Wiebes, later adding: "But with an eye on the Olympics, I’m very lucky I was able to stay upright. It all starts with respect. When I was younger, I had more respect for the top sprinters."
As well as the incident with Wiebes on stage 2, the run-in to the line on stage 1 was marred by crashes – with two significant crashes within the final 10km, one with 7.2km to go took down about ten riders while another, relatively close to the front of the group, within 5km of the line saw several more riders go down.
“We can talk about safety measures by the race organisers all that we want, but it all starts with the riders,"' said Wiebes. "The organisers of the Baloise Ladies Tour are doing a good job. This is a very nice race, but due to the behaviour of the riders, you have so many crashes. That’s why we try to ride in the front as much as we do. We want to stay out of the chaos & crashes.
"I just hope by speaking up, something changes because this is dangerous for every rider.”
