No real surprises at the Ronde van Drenthe Women’s World Tour race in north-east Holland yesterday. Chantal Blaak continued her brilliant early-season form with another great win. Ten days on from Le Samyn, Blaak led another Boels-Dolmans rout across the cobbles, twisting lanes and windswept roads around Hoogeveen.

Christine Majerus did a lot of the softening up work early on, including the first trip up the 17% VAMberg, before Lizzie Armitstead dropped out through illness. Kasper and Harris helped keep the pace high, but it was the last cobblestone sprint that caused the major split, at Borger Odoorn with around 60 kilometres to race. Blaak hit the front and accelerated hard, slicing off a breakaway quartet including Trixi Worrack (Canyon-SRAM), Anna Van Der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) and Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS).

Maybe the one thing that did make us sit up and take notice was that Wiggle-High5 missed out so completely. The British-backed squad chased desperately and clawed to within a half-minute before abandoning their efforts ahead of the final two climbs of the VAMberg. Once that had happened, the main group grew and the chase lost all hope of cohesion giving Blaak the confidence to keep driving for the line. van der Breggen jumped first inside the last kilometre, but couldn’t go clear. Elvin opened the sprint early but Blaak waited coolly on her wheel before roaring past for another great win this spring.

Other riders we picked out in case of a fast finish – Bastianelli, Olds, and Mackaij – finished five, six and seven to lead the bunch home, with only 71 rider making it back to Hoogeveen..

Van Der Breggen leads the World Tour after placing well at Strade Bianche last week. The ladies move on to the Drentse Acht today.

Ronde van Drenthe 2016 Results

1 Chantal Blaak, Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team                      3hrs 36′ 13″

2 Gracie Elvin, Orica-AIS

3 Trixi Worrack, Canyon-SRAM

4 Anna Van Der Breggen, Rabo-Liv Women Cycling Team    all same time

5 Marta Bastianelli, Alé Cipollini                                                          + 1′ 49″

6 Shelley Olds, Cylance Pro Cycling

7 Floortje Mackaij, Team Liv-Plantur

8 Lauren Kitchen, Hitec Products

9 Annemiek Van Vleuten, Orica-AIS

10 Leah Kirchmann, Team Liv-Plantur                                             all same time