Sunweb and Wiggle High5 Smiling After Opening Weekend

Mar 1
cyclical

The winter rejigging of team personnel that we hoped might bring about some less predictable results appears to be having at least a little early effect after Belgium’s opening weekend.

Freed from the shackles of team duties at what was Rabo-Liv, Lucinda Brand powered to a solo win in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday. Tactically, it was a perfect day for her Sunweb team as another escapee from a powerhouse team (Ellen Van Dijk formerly of Boels Dolmans) drove the major break of the day with Wiggle’s Elisa Longo Borghini.

Lucinda Brand winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2017 ©Twitter.com/ellenvandijk

Brand, with a free ride in the chase, made her decisive move with five kilometres to go, and held off pursuers Chantal Blaak (Boels Dolmans) and Annemiek Van Vleuten (Orica-Scott).

A rider to watch for the season, Cylance’s Spanish youngster Sheyla Gutierrez, came in eighth ahead of team-mate Dani King.

 

The Omloop van het Hageland Tielt-Winge on Sunday saw Wiggle High5 take out the win through Jolien D’hoore in a reduced bunch sprint, comfortably beating ex-team-mate Chloe Hosking, now at Alé Cipollini. Sarah Roy took Orica-Scott’s second podium of the weekend, behind them. After a powerful ride the day before, Elisa L-B was at it again; after an earlier break with D’hoore had been caught, the Italian lit up the finale by going clear with Sunweb’s Van Dijk and Coryn Rivera, and Chantal Blaak of Boels Dolmans.

Podium time for Jolien D’hoore © Twitter.com/WiggleHigh5

Unwilling to pull the fastest finisher (Rivera) to the line, the break faltered, but Longo Borghini attacked again on the final ascent of the Roeselberg in a move which was only shut down with 500 metres left. D’hoore had the power in a fast, downhill sprint to score the win.

Hageland is another of those quintessential Belgian semi-Classics, organised with care and heart, and making up part of the Lotto Cup series. The fans get plenty chance to mingle with the rider before and after the race, and it links today’s glitz-and-business sports events with the way “things used to be”.

Fans get to mix with their local heroines at races like Omloop van het Hageland.

That means that sometimes things go charmingly wrong, a few hours before the Oscar ceremony screw-ups, and there was a bizarre incident on the podium.

Ellen Van Dijk came up to receive her green overall points leader’s jersey for the Lotto Cup, and after putting it on back-to-front amid great hilarity, we then had to watch as the organisers produced a Sunweb sticker to go on the front of the jersey. The (male) official in charge flustered around before indicating to Van Dijk that it would be preferable if she stuck it on herself.

An oversight, nothing too sinister, and the organisers deserve congratulations for putting on such a cool race in a tough economic climate, and we got a live stream, too.

After Le Samyn des Dames (1st March), the Women’s World Tour gets going at Strade Bianche, and a host of big names will be back in action including Lizzie Deignan and Marianne Vos.