Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) edged out Fleur Moors (Lidl-Trek) to take the victory at Dwars door het Hageland on Saturday. The European champion launched the sprint first from a select group on the wet cobbles of Citadel of Diest, the stiff climb with double-digit gradients, to claim her tenth victory of the season.
After suffering a mechanical on the penultimate climb, Wiebes reacted quickly by jumping onto a teammate’s smaller bike, the one she raced all the way to the finish line.
Moors, winner of Dwars door de Westhoek last weekend, jumped on her wheel but was not able to come around and took second, just ahead of Millie Couzens (Fenix-Deceuninck), in third place.
'I had a slow puncture on the gravel section. We decided to change bikes. The moment I got on, I thought the saddle was a bit low. So I rode the final stage on a bike that was too small, belonging to a teammate.'
In addition, Wiebes had to contend with wet cobblestones, delivering a challenging sprint.
“I didn't want to take too many risks in the sprint, and the corners were tricky too because it's easy to slide off.”
The fifth edition of the elite women's race covered 124.6 km, running from Aarschot to Diest and featuring seven climbs along with 11 cobblestone sectors.
Results
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