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Omloop van Borsele

Wild wins for a fourth time 

Borsele, Netherlands, UCI 1.2 122 km

Write-up

Kirsten Wild (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) secured her fourth win in the Omloop van Borsele ahead of Charlotte Becker (HTC Highroad) and Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit)

Like previous years, this race could not have been predicted. Wild was aiming to win the race for the fourth time, but the inform Marianne Vos (Netherland Bloeit), who completed a dream victory for the fourth time at La Fleche Wallonne last week, could have up set Wilds plans. HTC Highroad and Garmin Cervelo both had strong teams too. This years race was again well supported by the women and saw one of the biggest fields of the season so far, 177 women started the 122km course, 5 laps of a 24.4km circuit. 

Conditions were not really ideal for Dutch racing. It was 27 degrees and there was little to no wind until the second half of the race. The narrow roads again saw a number of early crashes which filtered our the bunch a little. 

An early attack from Christina Becker (Skil-Koga) was held for a number of kilometres. The gap sat at 45 seconds for almost one lap before the team of Gamin Cervelo, led by Trine Schmidt and Sharon Laws moved to the front to bring the gap down. 

The pace of the chase, split the peloton into three bunches. As they finished the 4th lap, a leading group of 40 riders had formed. Each of the teams had a number of riders represented in the break and as a result the gap to the chasers gradually increased. 

As the bunch navigated a narrow section after 80km of racing, Lizzie Armitstead (Garmin Cervelo) set a fast pace on the front. This split the leading bunch. Chloe Hosking (HTC Highroad) tried to bring the group back together. It was a gap too big, she had two riders in the front and pulled off. A gap of 25 seconds quickly formed. 

The damage had been done by Armitstead and she and three of her Garmin Cervelo team, Iris Slappendel, Lucy Martin and Laws led a group of 26 riders.  Included in the group were, Sarah Duester and Marianne Vos (Netherland Bloeit), Wild and Lucinda Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), Adrie Visser, Charlotte Becker and Katie Colclough (HTC Highroad), Suzanne de Goede, Roxane Knetemann and Amy Pieters (Skil-Koga) and representative from Team Specialised DPD, Abus Nutrixxion, Hitec and Sengers Ladies Cycling.  

With 23km to go, eight riders escaped, Armitstead, Colclough and Becker, Duester, Brand, Vera Koedooder (Specialized), Pieters and Sara Mustonen (Hitec). They quickly gained a 20 second advantage. 

Wild and Vos had missed the break and for a second year had to chase to the leaders. They both jumped off the front of the chasing peloton to the leading group. With 10km to go the chase group had closed the gap and 21 riders led the race. 

With 8km to go Vos, Slappendel and Becker attacked the lead group and created a split. Eleven riders made the break and led the race. Wild, Brand, Becker and Colclough, Duester, Mustonen, Pieter, Koedooder and Armitstead, quickly gained a advantage over the chase group. The chase was over as most teams were represented in the lead group. With 5 km to go, the lead to the peloton was 1 minute 15 seconds. 

Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) attacked and managed to get a 50m go before Duester closed the gap for Vos. With 3km to go, the lead group of all together. 

At 1500m, Duester was leading Vos, Brand was leading Wild, Colclough was leading out Becker. With 1km to go, last year's winner Wild and Vos were positioned well. In the sprint, the Wild had the best line. Armitstead was trying to upset the result but went too early. Wild led from the front with 50m to go. Becker jumped off the wheel of Colclough to secure second. Vos managed to get round Armitstead to secure third. 

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