Chantal van den Broek-Blaak extended her outright record of wins at Le Samyn des Dames with a third win, taken in imperious style. The Dutchwoman rode two-thirds of the 94.4 kilometer course in glorious solo isolation, and never looked troubled.
van den Broek-Blaak was part of an initial 14-rider group which detonated the race, but decided that today was not a day for passengers. Frustrated with fourth on Saturday at Omloop het Nieuwsblad, she blasted away from her erstwhile companions and set her course for the finish in Dour.
The race started from Quaregnon with 15 sectors of tough Belgian cobbles, thankfully dry and relatively mud-free, on the menu. Only two World Tour teams took the start (Movistar and Trek-Segafredo) while the eventual winner’s Boels-Dolmans are officially a level below but are top-tier in every other respect.
Trek-Segafredo’s Ellen Van Dijk, Lotte Kopecky from Lotto-Soudal and Aude Biannic from Movistar were trying to mount a pursuit, but knew that defending champion Jip van den Bos and Christine Majerus from Boels-Dolmans would do nothing to assist their five-rider group, as their team-mate was flying up front. Majerus, in fact, hadn’t even bothered with gloves on a bitterly cold day but still looked in complete control of the situation.
The main peloton, by this point, had effectively surrendered, having been blown apart in the wind-blasted, wide-open Belgian countryside
Lotte Kopeky had travelled straight from the Berlin Track World Championships to the cobbles of this petit Paris-Roubaix, showing impressive strength and conditioning to hang in.
Inside 20kms to go, and the chase group was 2’14” behind, with the main field around another minute behind. Although they had managed to trim a minute off van den Broek-Blaak’s maximum advantage, the progress was limited to chasing for second, even at this point.
van den Broek-Blaak was simply a class apart and looked in awesome form, with the camera moto clattering across the betonweg concrete roads in her wake.
Inside 13kms to go, the Dutch former world champion picked a slightly slippery line over the thirteenth cobbled sector, Chemin de Wihéries, knowing that it would be much harder for a group with more riders fighting for position.
The penultimate cobbled sector at the Côte des Nonettes with 6.6 kilometers to go momentarily slowed the flying Dutchwoman, but coming off the top the chasing group had started to look at each other, with Biannic and Van Dijk in particular trying to figure out how to get rid of van den Bos and Majerus.
The Luxemburg champion Majerus was the first to attack, with Van Dijk towing Kopecky and van den Bos.
Onto the 500-meter Rue de Bellevue, the last sector of cobbles taken for the third and final time, the Dutchwoman chose a safe and steady line across the crown of the cobbles, popping back out onto a blissful tarmacked surface with 2.5 kilometers to go.
The battle for second was kicked off by Van Dijk. Majerus caught her and simply rolled off the front before it came back together, and Biannic tried next.
Almost two minutes after Chantal van den Broek-Blaak had rolled across the line, Majerus led out the sprint for second and held off Kopecky. The bunch sprinting for seventh was led home by a fourth Boels-Dolmans rider, Lonneke Unken just a day after her 20th birthday.
“We just wanted to race, and it doesn’t matter for us who was winning today, just how we wanted to play the game and to put as much numbers in front as possible,” said the winner.
MVP: van den Broek-Blaak rode a ferocious race, but Lotte Kopecky’s move from track to cobbles was almost equally noteworthy.
Le Samyn des Dames 2020, 94.9kms
1 Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Ned/Boels-Dolmans) 2hrs 23’ 33”
2 Christine Majerus (Lux/Boels-Dolmans) + 1’ 50”
3 Lotte Kopecky (Bel/Lotto-Soudal) + 1’ 50”
4 Jip van den Bos (Ned/Boels-Dolmans) + 1’ 50”
5 Ellen Van Dijk (Ned/Trek-Segafredo) + 1’ 50”
6 Aude Biannic (Fra/Movistar) + 1’ 56”
7 Lonneke Unken (Ned/Boels-Dolmans) + 3′ 43″
8 Maria van ‘t Geloof (Ned/Drops) + 3′ 43″
9 Claire Faber (Lux/Illi Bikes CT) + 3′ 43″
10 Alba Teruel (Spa/Movistar) + 3′ 43″