Vollering wins Niewiadoma duel to claim Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
The two strongest riders in the race came to the fore on the Muur van Geraardsbergen, but European champion Demi Vollering had too much for Kasia Niewiadoma in the two-up sprint in Ninove.
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Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) claimed victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for the first time in her career by outsprinting Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) after they had escaped on the Muur van Geraardsbergen.
Although Niewiadoma cleverly forced Vollering to lead out in Ninove, the European champion had too much in reserve and she was an emphatic winner of the two-up sprint on the gently climbing finishing straight.
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won the sprint for third place at 21 seconds, just ahead of Cat Ferguson (Movistar) and Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez).
The winning move on the Muur was expertly teed up by Koch after FDJ United-Suez had worked to try to eliminate fast-finishers like Wiebes from contention.
Their efforts began ahead of the Berendries, where Elise Chabbey forged clear with Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), Kamila Aasebø (Uno-X Mobility) and Nina Berton (EF Education-Oatly). That move was reeled in at the foot of the Muur, where Koch’s effort split the front group asunder as Vollering bided her time.
Vollering took over when the gradient started to bite in earnest, and only Niewiadoma could match her pace to the summit. The pair were evenly matched on the Bosberg, too, though Vollering could be heard inciting the Polish champion to offer longer turns on the fast run-in to the finish.
In truth, there seemed little prospect of the pair being reeled in, and Vollering continued her fine start to the season by out-pacing Niewiadoma in Ninove. They will renew hostilities in Tuscany next weekend for Strade Bianche.
“It’s really nice to finish it off today,” Vollering said. “It was a bit my own expectation that I would do it, but still to do it makes me proud and the team did a really good job.
“On the Muur, it was the plan to just do full gas. Franzi did the first part of the Muur perfectly and I just continued as hard as possible, and it was only Kasia left with me. From then, it was full gas back to the finish.”
Result: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
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