With the peloton closing quickly behind, the Italian was part of a group of five that battled it out for the victory in Dour after bridging the gap to the original breakaway trio with Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck).
Schweinberger settled for third on the day after trying to open the final sprint up early, overtaken by the more powerful Guazzini and Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility) during the final run to the line.
Guazzini was third on both of her previous appearances at the Belgian one-day race, but went one better this time out with her fourth professional victory.
“I’m really happy because it’s the third time that I came here and the last two years I was third,” Guazzini said after the finish.
"Two years ago I made a mistake, I didn't launch my sprint after I was in the break and the bunch came back,” she said referring to the 2022 race where she and Shirin van Anoroij (Lidl-Trek) were caught by Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) and the bunch in the final 150 metres.
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Aude Biannic (Movistar) led the peloton in ahead of Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) just five seconds down in the end, but Guazzini committed herself at the front after bridging with Schweinberg, knowing she was probably still the fastest in the group.
“It’s always a bit hard to cooperate because if you waste too much energy, you are tired for the sprint but I didn't want to risk it,” she said. “I was confident, knew the final and just wanted to push until the end.
“In the end, I saw they were coming and we weren’t going too fast so I was like ‘maybe they are coming’ but you have to believe and I did it and I’m so happy.”
Fifth on the day was the earliest rider to make a breakaway stick, Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels), who rode a great race to hang on once the trio were caught by Guazzini and the Austrian.
The duo that rejoined the front had originally been a trio but unfortunately, Lotto Dstny’s Wilma Aintila crashed 13km from the finish and played no part in the final. The Finnish rider went down after navigating a cobbled corner in what were treacherous wet and slippy conditions.
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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