cycling
Lorena Wiebes cheers too early in the sprint. Photo: sporza
Marianne Vos snatched victory from an early cheering Lorena Wiebes at the last minute in the Amstel Gold Race. The course was shortened considerably due to an accident with a police officer.
The women had only been playing for over an hour when the match had to be stopped. This happened due to an accident involving a police officer on the course. The officer, a motorcyclist, was hit by a car on the Bergseweg. The passage on that slope was blocked and the women therefore stood still for more than 45 minutes.
After that we had to wait a while for an official restart. The peloton cycled behind the neutral car towards local laps, where they completed three more, covering 55 kilometers. There Yara Kastelijn, Ricarda Bauernfeind and Eva van Agt managed to break away from the group. Italian champion and winner of the Tour of Flanders Elisa Longo Borghini tried to chase it twice, but Demi Vollering thoughtfully closed the gap.
The poker between the favorites in the peloton played into the hands of the three at the front, who slowly but surely saw their lead increase to more than a minute. Lotte Kopecky smelled the danger and put herself at the head of the peloton, but barely managed to close the distance to the leading group. It had now become clear that Eva van Agt was the strongest at the front. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider rode off Kastelijn, but was then annoyed by Bauernfeind, who did not cooperate.
The pace dropped and the peloton still had a chance to catch up with the trio at the front. With two kilometers to go the time had come. A thinned out group of favorites was still able to sprint for victory. Lorena Wiebes seemed to succeed and raised her arms in the air, cheering, but Marianne Vos sprinted past her at the last minute.
