Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) beat Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) in a tight photo finish sprint at Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday. Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) showed her speed by taking third place. It was Wiebes’s 4th WorldTour victory and she now sits in 3rd in the WorldTour rankings, while the two Italians, Balsamo and Consonni, are 2nd and 8th in the rankings.
SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek controlled the race over the cobbles and climbs, but there were plenty of attacks from other teams in the last 10km. Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team) and teammate Floortje Mackaij were especially active in the final kilometers of the race, trading attacks right down to the 3km mark. With 2.5km remaining, Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) launched a powerful attack and immediately opened up a gap of 4″ as the peloton entered the final kilometer. It was a great move by Brown, but it was shut down by UAE Team ADQ and DSM-Firmenich PostNL, both of which were counting on their sprinters for the finish.
In the sprint, Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) was the first to start her lead out for teammate Charlotte Kool, but Kool was not well-positioned and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) took over at 300m with her teammate Wiebes on her wheel. At the 200m mark Wiebes launched her sprint with Balsamo on her wheel and it looked like Balsamo was well-positioned for the win. But at the line Balsamo didn’t quite have the speed to get around Wiebes and lost by 1/4 of a wheel. Consonni was impressive, but looked like she might have launched her sprint too late, crossing the line with plenty of leftover speed.
Results
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/gent-wevelgem-women-elite/2024/result
