PRESS CONFERENCE | Lorena Wiebes shrugs away Flanders pressure after Middelkerke - Wevelgem victoy - "Especially the Oude Kwaremont..."

Lorena Wiebes rode to victory at the Middelkerke - Wevelgem, a triumph based on climbing power, tactical prowess and sprinting ability. CyclingUpToDate was present at the post-race press confernce to hear what the Dutch champion had to say regarding her triumph.

Wiebes impressed by taking the victory in the Belgian classic based on a move, launched by herself, on the final ascent of the Kemmelberg. Whilst the Team SD Worx - ProTime rider can climb, the uphill efforts are usually the main obstacle in her path for the victories in the main races.

However in a great display of form she made the winning split and had enough in the tank to keep the five-rider group going to the finish, close the gaps in the late attacks and sprint to victory ahead of Fleur Moors and Karlijn Swinkels.

Wiebes: I started my sprint quite early, so that was also a small mistake. I could have waited a bit longer instead of going with three hundred meters to go. But with this finish line, you see it so long already that you want to go, and especially when you're at the front, you don't want them to come from the back, and you don't know who is in what position, so...

W: Yeah, maybe one of them.

W: Yeah, they said like, "Don't scare us next time".

W: Yeah.

W: Yeah, normally it's too long, but yeah what I said with this finish it's also quite hard, especially when I was already all the time in leading or in the front pushing and keeping the speed a bit high. So then it's still quite a hard sprint. Sometimes bunch sprints can be easier than a sprint like this".

W: Yeah, I felt good from the beginning of the race. And yeah on one of the plug streets [field roads] I could follow Franziska Koch quite easily when she bridged to one of the front groups. Then I felt, "okay, legs are good." And then the first time Kemmel, I was like, "legs are still good."

And then on the Baneberg, they started early also with the attack. And then I was like, "I can still follow quite easily." And then we were away with this group of around fifteen riders, and that made it also a bit easier towards the second time Kemmel. And then I was like, "yeah, why not pace it myself and see what happens?" And yeah, and then I didn't realize directly that we had a group of... Yeah, that we were with a group of five.

W: It will be different. It's different kind of climbs. They, they are of course longer also, especially the Oude Kwaremont. But I hope I will have a bit of the same legs next week, and that I can stay as long as possible in the front, of course. But yeah, today it felt good, and I'm happy with that.

W: Not fully agree, because also next weeks there are more hills. Different riders yea, Longo Borghini, Vollering, Niewiadoma, all riders that are pretty strong in this kind of races. So we have to see also. But I mean, we have alsp Lotte [Kopecky] next week there. So hopefully I can be one of the cards also still in the final. That's where I'm hoping for. Even if it's in a second group behind. But what I said, we need to see how the legs are next week. It can be that next week the, the legs are shit, so...

W: Yeah. I hope so. Um, yeah, it's... But I say it's really hard for me to say about next week how it will be because it's a different race... But today I was really happy, and also it, it gives you confidence of course to, to do a race like this and also still feel strong when you're pulling with the breakaway.

W: Yeah, to keep the gap, I mean of course we look to the power meter while turning in the breakaway and I had still had the feeling I had enough power to push. And I mean, it was hard when Gasparrini attacked in the final because I could not directly go, to try to close it, so it took some time. But then I knew also I need to pace it, so that was quite some effort. But yeah.

W: Well, I was more thinking, "Anyway, I need to close it." It's better to, to close it and then lose the race than one rider gets away and the peloton comes back or something, you know? Because that's also the thing, like we were not sure with the peloton. Yeah, it's always a bit hard for me to know because of course we get the information from the car, but still I, I haven't been in this so much, many times in this situation to see like how far is the peloton still.

Wiebes: Yeah. I was like, "that's not, not gonna work." I mean, with 10 k's to go, if they catch us back, it's different than with 3 k's to go because then we are like standing still when they pass us. So that's also why I needed to keep some speed in the group in the last kilometers.

W: Yeah I think Fleur showed a really good progression this year. I mean, she's still super young and yeah she's doing really strong, also with these hills. Of course I knew her also that she was able to follow when I attacked and yeah, I think it's good to see young riders like Fleur becoming stronger and also yeah, it was... I think it was a good opportunity for her.

W: That's part of sprinting ... that sometimes you get boxed in, and I don't want to crash riders out to get a gap, you know? So every door closed in front of me when I tried to move up. Every gap I saw, I tried to move up and the door closed again. That's also part of sprinting. It was a strange sprint there with not super high speeds. And I mean, we have made also mistakes in the lead outs. We discussed that afterwards. We looked to it, analyzed it and actually the plan was to do the lead out today better but things went a bit different.

W: Well, it was extra motivation today to win again. No but I think sprints like in Bruges it keeps yourself sharp again and before the season we knew probably it will happen this season to lose a sprint. But it's more frustrating when you're not able to sprint, then you're beaten. If somebody gonna beat you when you can do the full sprint it's different.