Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx–Protime) secured her 100th career victory in a perfectly timed attack to lead a spectacular bunch sprint at Gent Wevelgem.
The Dutch rider launched her attack off the wheel of her teammate, world champion Lotte Kopecky, with 200m to go and outsprinted Elisa Balsamo (Lidl–Trek) to retain her 2024 title, with Charlotte Kool (Picnic PostNL) rounding off the podium close behind.
Wiebes continued her dominant and near unbeaten start to 2025 in a crash-riddled race which kept the peloton in touch the whole time.
Speaking after the milestone win, "I am very happy. You always want to win and every time it works out, it's fantastic," Wiebes said. "Lotte was super important she could do whatever she wanted on the climbs."
How it happened
The race started fast with an early break at 161km to go, forming a trio with Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health Cycling), Beatrice Caudera (BePink-Imatra-Bongioanni) and Britt de Grave (DD Group Pro Cycling). They were swiftly joined after 4km by Mia Griffin (Roland), Maaike Boogaard (VolkerWessels), Franziska Brausse (Ceratizit), and Cloe Kiekens (DD Group Pro Cycling) to create a 7-rider strong lead pack.
From there, the seven riders controlled the majority of the race, extending their lead to almost 5 minutes in 27km.
But as they hit the open roads of De Moeren, the windy conditions started to affect the peloton as around 30 riders were dropped, and now in their lighter formation, the chasers reduced the gap to the seven riders to only 2 minutes 53 seconds as they crossed through 121km remaining.
A crash in the bunch saw Nienke Veenhoven (Visma–Lease a Bike) retire, and the peloton split further - into three groups ranging from just over 2 minutes to almost 3 minutes in arrears of the leaders with 118km remaining.
The peloton swiftly regained formation and finally were chasing by less than 2 minutes for the first in nearly 60km as they crossed through 100km and with this newfound motivation bridged the gap with the leaders before the Scherpenberg with 73km to go.
Kopecky led both attacks on two separate Kemmelberg ascents as she tried to break up the peloton, with the first assault at 56km to go, including Wiebes and Balsamo and many more and the second with 34km remaining. This second attack initiated a five-rider front group that included Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Wiebes, Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Oatly), and Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto).
And yet, Longo Borghini was not taking turns, and they were only 15 seconds ahead of the peloton, who were being led by the Lidl-Trek riders, and as a result, the two groups merged with 27km to go.
Once there and with no further attacks, the group remained glued together as they headed toward Wevelgem even though SD Worx–Protime teammates Elena Cecchini and Marta Lach tried to re-inject some pace back into the proceedings.
And so with 2.5km together, the peloton started to prepare for a bunch sprint, with Kopecky leading out Wiebes and Balsamo on her wheel.
With 200m to go, Wiebes launched the sprint and held off the charge of Balsamo, who nudged ahead of Kool with nothing between them and the rest of the field.
