In her last year of professional racing, Dutch Anna Van Der Breggen just showed why she is the current Worldchamp (all photos screenshots of GCN plus TV)
The “Omloop Het Nieuwsblad” among women has once again become prey for the world champion. After Annemiek van Vleuten last year, Anna van der Breggen has now won the Flemish opening race. At the Bosberg she said goodbye to her competitors. Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky sprinted to 4th place. Mia Griffin had her first pro race and DNF, but hey …one step at the time for the 22-year-old, as the experience of the day racing with the best in the world must be daunting!!
Strange, but true: the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (MEN) has turned into a bunch sprint. 26-year-old Italian Davide Ballerini was clearly the strongest in the streets of Ninove.
The Omloop started for real on the Kapelmuur, with Moscon as the first master of ceremonies. The Italian sang it out to the Bosberg but also ran into a wall there. Deceuninck-Quick Step filled Ballerini’s map, everyone remained obediently on the school desks in the blue class. Just before the red rag, Kristoff (leak) and Hayter (fall) were eliminated, Sénéchal did a lead-out from the book for his Italian teammate. Ballerini – not related to the 1995 winner, did not tolerate any competitors in the picture and rushed unsustainably to his first classic victory before surprising Stewart (GB), Vanmarcke, Haussler, and Gilbert. Ryan Mullen was 91st at @4m26. 35 riders didn’t finish with lots of crashes during the race. Still 140 riders finished the opener of the season in Belgium.
Top 10 Result
1 Davide Ballerini DQT the 200.5 km in 4:43:03
2 Jake Stewart GFC s/t
3 Sep Vanmarcke ISN s/t
4 Heinrich Haussler TBV s/t
5 Philippe Gilbert LTS s/t
6 Alex Aranburu AST s/t
7 Florian Sénéchal DQT s/t
8 Matteo Trentin UAD s/t
9 Kévin Geniets GFC s/t
10 Nils Politt BOH s/t
