Marianne Vos won a four-up sprint into Ninove to win Omloop Het Nieuwsblad over World Champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and a pair of Lidl-Trek riders, Elisa Longo Borghini and Shirin Van Anrooij.
The finale was defined by the 1-2 punch efforts of the Trek duo, but Vos played her cards perfectly, allowing a confident Kopecky to close move after move before unleashing a sprint nobody could touch.
- Lidl-Trek win the award for most aggressive on the day, even if their aggression landed them in the last two places from the front group. Longo Borghini instigated the winning move with an attack at 34 km to go, riding through the day’s breakaway. The rest of the final front four came across on the Muur van Geraardsbergen, along with Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), who was dropped shortly after. From that point on, there was rarely a moment when either Longo Borghini or Van Anrooij weren’t off the front.
- Trek’s tactics were largely nullified by Kopecky, who was willing to do much of the chasing. Vos benefited from this dynamic. Could Trek have something different? They were one Kopecky pause from making it work. We often ask ‘How do you beat SD Worx?’ Well, they were beaten today.
- Vos has won an incredible 251 UCI races but had never even started Omloop before today. Her cyclocross season is mostly to blame for that. But she knows the roads and rookie status didn’t stop the GOAT.
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