Gent-Wevelgem Women: Lorena Wiebes sprints to repeat victory

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won Gent-Wevelgem, taking the 100th victory of her career. Launching her sprint with 200 metres to go from the wheel of her teammate, world champion Lotte Kopecky, Wiebes was untouchable, with Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNL) not even trying to come around her and settling for second and third.

Kopecky had ridden hard up the second ascent of the Kemmelberg, splitting the peloton and initiating a front group of five that also included Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Wiebes, Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Oatly), and Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto).

But Longo Borghini was not taking any turns, and they were only 15 seconds ahead of the peloton where Lidl-Trek were chasing hard. Wiebes and Kopecky attacked in turns to make Longo Borghini chase, and the two groups eventually merged with 27km to go.

Although there was no shortage of attacks on the run-in to Wevelgem and Lidl-Trek even tried to force echelons, nobody got away for longer than a few seconds, and when the sprinters' teams took control, a bunch sprint was inevitable.

"I felt good on the Kemmelberg. Then were in front with a small group, but the cooperation was not so good, so the peloton came back," Wiebes described the action on the main climb of the day.

In the final, Kopecky expertly piloted Wiebes to the front of the peloton with 1.3km to go to set up Wiebes' sprint.

"We chose to do [the lead-out with] only Lotte, and the other girls did an amazing job with pulling before. Actually, she went really long with the lead-out so that at one point I was like, 'yeah, I start now'," Wiebes said about the sprint.

How it unfolded

The break of the day consisted of Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health), Beatrice Caudera (BePink-Imatra-Bongioanni), Maaike Boogaard (VolkerWessels), Britt de Grave, Cleo Kiekens (both DD Group), Franziska Brauße (Ceratizit), and Mia Griffin (Roland). They built an advantage of over four minutes before the peloton took up the chase.

A crash in De Moeren split the peloton and forced Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike) to abandon. The two groups came back together before the race was split again in a crosswind section. At the 100km mark, though, the peloton was together again.

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They were up to 24 seconds ahead but were caught again atop the Baneberg, 40km from the line and five kilometres from the second time up the Kemmelberg, this time on the shorter but steeper west side called the Ossuaire.

Again, Kopecky went hard from the bottom, and only Longo Borghini and Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) could follow her at first before Wiebes, Borghesi, and Dygert made it back to their wheels near the top. Chabbey couldn't follow on the descent, leaving five riders at the front, but with Wiebes being one of them, Longo Borghini, Borghesi, and Dygert were reluctant to commit fully to the move.

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27km from the finish, the front group was caught, and more riders came back from behind until the peloton had grown to 85 riders at the finish. Many riders tried to attack and anticipate a sprint, with Lidl-Trek being particularly active for a while before the passage through Ypres and then trying to force echelons after the city, but to no avail.

From the 12km mark, the top teams kept the pace high, and everybody prepared for the mass sprint, with lead-out trains lining up across the road. Kopecky brought Wiebes to the very front before the flamme rouge, and after a drag race with Dygert who was leading out her teammate Chiara Consonni, Wiebes went for a long sprint that left all competitors behind.

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