Lorena Wiebes claims second Scheldeprijs victory
The Dutch sprinter backed up her win of 12 months ago, blasting clear on the chaotic run into Schoten.
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Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) maintained her 100 percent record at Scheldeprijs, claiming a dominant win in the Belgian one-day classic.
The winner of last year’s inaugural race, Wiebes went into Wednesday’s race as the outright favorite and she delivered on that expectation. Despite a messy sprint that saw her lose her leadout, Wiebes powered clear of the rest for her fourth win of the year.
Chiara Consonni (Valcar Travel & Service), who won last week’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, continued her good run of form to take second place with Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing Xstra) rounding out the podium.
“It’s always special to win and for the second year in a row it’s even more special, especially now as the team controlled the whole race, and to finish it off, it’s great,” Wiebes said at the finish.
2️⃣ in a row! 👏 @lorenawiebes wins the Scheldeprijs for the second consecutive time! She was faster than @consonni_chiara 🥈 and @BarbieriRachele 🥉 in the bunchsprint. #SP22 pic.twitter.com/qjheAYGjjx
— Scheldeprijs (@Scheldeprijs) April 6, 2022
How it happened
A tailwind made for a quick start to the race, which set out from Schoten under grey and cloudy skies. The conditions meant that it would be difficult for a breakaway to go clear, and with a sprint finish almost inevitable there were not too many teams eager to have a go.
It took over 30 kilometers for three riders to make it up the road for Megan Armitage (IBCT), Abi Smith (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), and Simone Boilard (ST Michel-Auber 93) to get away. In the end, it was a long day out at the front with the peloton not overly keen to catch them and they made it to the final 10km before being reeled back with Smith the last woman remaining at 5km to go.
With Smith mopped up, it was all about making it to the sprint, but the day would be over for some after a touch of wheels between Amalie Dideriksen (Trek-Segafredo) and a member of the Bingoal Casino squad sparked a big crash. The incident happened right near the front of the pack and a large portion of the peloton went down.
None of the main contenders were caught up and there was no letting up of the pace in the pack. Valcar Travel & Service led what was left of the peloton around the final corner, but it was Wiebes who launched her sprint first with about 250m to go.
The Dutch sprinter had lost the wheel of her leadout rider, Charlotte Kool, in the hustle and bustle of the finale, but she surfed wheels perfectly and had a clear sprint to the line.
Results will be available once stage has completed.
