It was a dream day for Lidl-Trek at Ronde van Vlaanderen, with Elisa Longo Borghini winning ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) after a leadout from her teammate Shirin van Anrooij.
- The early stages of the race were marked by crashes, most notably by Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) and Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) who were forced to abandon. Lidl-Trek later reported that Deignan suffered a fracture of the radial head on her right arm (the larger of the two forearm bones, at the elbow). Deignan’s teammate Longo Borghini also went down but was able to get back into the peloton.
- The peloton played it relatively safe before they hit the Koppenberg. The pace was high, but all the action would be saved for the final 45 km of the race.
- With the weather, the Koppenberg took no prisoners. With her experience, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) was exactly where she needed to be leading the race up the cobbled climb. A handful of favourites followed her while Kopecky was caught out, forced to dismount and run up the climb.
- Demi Vollering was left to try and bring Kopecky back to the leading group led by Vos with Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini, Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco), and two UAE Team ADQ riders in Silvia Perisco and Karlijn Swinkels.
- In the end, Vollering left Kopecky behind on the Oude Kruisberg/Hotond to try to bridge to the group ahead. Meanwhile up the road Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma put pressure on their break-mates. Vollering was finally able to join the leaders with 23 km to go, just before the race hit the Oude Kwaremont.
- Soon after Vollering caught up so did Van Anrooij. The young Dutchwoman didn’t tack herself onto the group but instead rocketed past the others as they paused with the new factor that was Vollering. She caught everyone off-guard and only Swinkels was able to try to follow the cyclocross star.
- Van Anrooij went into the final climb of the race with a 21-second advantage on the group behind, with Pieterse in between the gap. On the Paterberg Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma joined Van Anrooij, giving Lidl-Trek the upper hand.
- Once the three led the race they worked together beautifully to stay away from the chasing group. With Vollering and Kopecky working behind, the gap was too close to call the race. As the lead group rode into the finish the front three slowed enough that the group behind was close to catching, but Van Anrooij started the sprint in time to keep them away.
- The Dutchwoman started the sprint and her teammate Longo Borghini beat out Niewiadoma to take a historic victory.
Top Ten
Quote of the day
This is really different. I won with the tricolor on my shoulders, I am a more mature woman, I was just a kid when I won the race back in 2015 and now I can realize a bit more, I am more conscious about what I have been achieving.
Elisa Longo Borghini after winning Flanders for the second time in 2015.
What did you think of this story?