Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime) sprinted to victory in Nokere Koerse, grinding up the dragging, uphill finish to take her first win for her new team.
The Polish rider just came around Linda Zanetti (Uno-X Mobility) in the final few metres, with the Swiss rider taking second as Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) came up fast to take third.
As well as Lach’s first win in her new team colours, this is SD Worx-Protime’s fifth consecutive win in Nokere Koerse, even in the absence of defending champion Lotte Kopecky.
A hectic day in Belgium saw many strong riders try to go on the attack, but ultimately it proved too difficult to get away on the flat terrain, and it was a battle of the sprinters on the uphill finish in Nokere.
The sprint unfolded almost in slow motion, with Uno-X leading things out for Zanetti, but Lach was glued to the Swiss rider’s wheel and accelerated just at the right moment to go past her and win by over a bike length.
“It feels amazing to win the first race for me with SD Worx-Protime,” Lach said at the finish.
"It’s amazing to have such a team around me, and I’m really grateful for all the commitment, believing in me, supporting. It’s for all of us today."
"It was a long sprint, because the final climb was hurting already, but one last kilometre was really long, and then I was only hearing in my ear ‘go, go, go for it!’ and then I just kept pushing, then I saw the line and I’m first. I was like ‘oh my god, I can’t believe it!'"
How it unfolded
The hilly, cobbled race got off to a fast start on Wednesday morning, with the high pace and technical laps meaning that no early break went, and things were still all together after 50km of racing.
After 70km, a rider did finally get away when Sweden’s Stina Kagevi (Team Coop-Repsol) broke off the front of the peloton. The previously very controlled bunch clearly weren’t too worried about one solo attacker, as they let Kagevi quickly build a lead of a minute as things settled slightly.
The calm didn’t last long, however, with the final 50km ushering in more action as several teams pushed the pace of the Lange Ast climb, which started to whittle down the bunch. On the flat, it was various individual riders who were injecting some aggression into the race, with sporadic attacks rather than a concerted effort from any one team.
The left Kagevi hanging out front for quite some time, but heading towards the final 30km the pace really lifted and started eating into the Swedish rider’s lead. SD Worx-Protime, Lidl-Trek and FDJ-SUEZ were consistently trying to force a move off the front of the peloton, but it was tough to break the elastic with some really dangerous riders getting involved in the action.
Kagevi was looking remarkably strong up front, not letting herself sit up even when the peloton was close, and pulled her lead back out again when the bunch settled, but she was finally caught with 20km to go.
With a tough finale awaiting, there was some hesitance to just ride towards a sprint finish so the attacks continued, but still no one could quite make anything stick on the tarmac.
Uno-X Mobility’s Aniina Ahtosalo was a key protagonist, always instigating attacks and leading the bunch across the cobbled sectors. With 11km to go, Lidl-Trek’s Anna Henderson attacked on a cobbled sector to open up a dangerous gap, but she was brought back with 7km to go as Visma-Lease a Bike led the chase.
Three riders tried to go on the counter-attack after the catch, but everything was together with 4km to go as it looked like a large uphill sprint was coming in Nokere.
Fenix-Deceuninck and Uno-X Mobility had the most organised lead-outs heading into the final, and the Norwegians looked to have got it perfectly with Zanetti leading into the final 50 metres. However, one last acceleration from Lach proved too much as the SD Worx rider sealed victory, extending the team’s Nokere Koerse winning streak to five.
Results
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