Oh man, what a tight sprint between 2 of the best! Lorena Wiebes just just pips Elisa Balsamo! Great move by Grace Brown late on too under the flamme rouge #GW24
Lorena Wiebes takes photo finish victory at Gent Wevelgem WE 2024 after incredibly close bunch sprint
CyclingSunday, 24 March 2024 at 17:49
In an incredibly tight finish to Gent Wevelgem WE 2024, a photo finish was needed to decide the winner, with Lorena Wiebes eventually being awarded the win ahead of Elisa Balsamo and Chiara Consonni.
Despite a number of attacks and crashes, as the race began the Kemmelberg with just over 50km to go, a relatively full peloton maintained control at the front.
As Lotte Kopecky began to accelerate on the cobbles though things quickly began to become more spread out with an elite group rode clear.
In the group with the world champion were the likes of Puck Pieterse, Elisa Longo Borghini, Pfeiffer Georgi, Lorena Wiebes, Marlen Reusser, Shirin van Anrooij and Karlijn Swinkels.
As things came back together at around 30km to go however, the pace slowed somewhat as the riders planned their next move.
Emma Norsgaard was the next to try her luck with an attack. Although she lasted a few kilometres out front everything was back together again going into the last 15km.
Movistar Team continued to try repeated attacks but every time, Ellen van Dijk was quickly on the wheel, marking moves for Lidl-Trek.
With just over 2km to go, Grace Brown got a small gap off the front and began to bury herself in a time-trial to the line. Under the flamme rouge, the Australian held a handful of seconds but ultimately it wasn't to be.
A bunch sprint was the decider. Lotte Kopecky playing leadout for Lorena Wiebes opened things up and in a thrilling finale, Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo could only be separated by a photo-finish. In the end, Wiebes took it with Chiara Consonni completing the podium in third.
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