Charlotte Kool capitilises on Wiebes absence in crash-marred Scheldeprijs sprint

Charlotte Kool of Alpecin-Premier Tech won the women's Scheldeprijs on Wednesday afternoon. The Dutchwoman out sprinted Nienke Veenhoven from Visma | Lease a Bike and Elisa Balsamo from Lidl-Trek to raise her arms on Churchilllaan. The finale of the race was unfortunately marred by a heavy crash, which reduced the sprinting peloton.

As defending champion, Balsamo travelled to Schoten on Wednesday as one of the favourites. Last year the Italian just barely managed to hold off Kool in the sprint. The Dutchwoman was then still riding for Picnic PostNL, but on Wednesday, lined up in the jersey of Fenix-Premier Tech.

The 'unofficial World Championship for sprinters' featured a host of big names from the women's peloton. Chiara Consonni (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto), Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ), Veenhoven (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) were all present. An epic sprint was therefore expected.

The route totalled 130 kilometres on Wednesday, finishing on a local circuit of around 17 kilometres, completed four times. A motivated group of riders wanted to reach the finish circuit ahead of the world's best sprinters, so an early breakaway of seven women was formed.

The breakaway group gained a maximum lead of approximately three minutes, but the peloton quickly brought that advantage down. The chasse patate of the day fell to Oda Aune Gissinger and Fariba Hashimi, who wanted to bridge a gap of just under three minutes. The pair were caught with 80 kilometres still to go.

After a crash, in which Fee Knaven of UAE was involved and had to abandon, the peloton shifted up a gear towards the Broekstraat. The first cobbles at 59 kilometres from the finish prompted initiative from SD Worx-Protime in particular, causing the lead of the early breakaway to vanish into thin air. Once the breakaway was caught, SD Worx attacked.

On the Broekstraat, the cobbled sector in the local finishing circuit, we saw more attacks, but heading into the final lap of 17 kilometres nobody was able to get away.

It didn't help that a motorcycle out rider, who was asleep at the wheel, neutralised an attack by Barbara Guarischi. The Italian was understandably angry, but the peloton simply maintained too much control.

Without the presence of Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx-Protime, there were opportunities for other fast women. But first they would have to try to tame SD Worx's clear ambition. Guarischi went again on the last Broekstraat, this time with a teammate. The Italian rider launched Femke Gerritse with 7 kilometers to go.

But Visma | Lease a Bike closed that gap for Veenhoven and, together with Lidl-Trek and Alpecin, stayed on the front into the finale. Their strong positioning served them well. In the middle of the peloton there was a big crash on the left side of the road, splitting the pack and leaving several riders on the tarmac.

The reduced bunch sprint was more manageable for the women who had avoided the crash, including almost all the favorites. Alpecin-Premier Tech was able to skillfully drop off Kool 150 meters from the line, leaving the Dutch rider with only a small effort to win. Veenhoven and Balsamo were unable to come arounf Kool, taking for second and third.

Scheldeprijs was not the only wonen's race on the calendar on Wednesday. In France, Amalie Dideriksen of Cofidis won the spring in the Région Pays de la Loire Tour.