Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won the Classic Brugge-De Panne, sprinting to victory ahead of Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).
A breakaway of two riders had been caught with one lap of the 42.9km finishing circuit to go. Cat Ferguson (Movistar) went solo with 35km to go and kept the peloton at just over ten seconds for a long time but was eventually reeled in 2.5km from the finish.
Lidl-Trek led the sprinters onto the finishing straight, but Wiebes launched her trademark sprint from Balsamo’s wheel with 200 metres to go and was a bike length ahead of Consonni and several bike lengths ahead of Balsamo on the line.
“I started my sprint quite early,” said Wiebes after her first sixth victory of the 2025 season.
“I’m happy with the teamwork. The whole race was quite nervous, the final also, but I had Barbara [Guarischi] in front of me, and she brought me into a good position.”
Wiebes also compared the women’s race to the men’s edition on Wednesday that had been marred by several crashes in the final.
“It was better compared to yesterday that one team really took the lead. Lidl-Trek still had the full lead-out, and then it’s a bit more in one line. On the smaller roads, that’s better,” she said.
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