In Saturday’s Classic Lorient Agglomération, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) received the bunch dash – however sadly for her and the crew, it was a dash for fourth place as Amber Kraak (FDJ-Suez), Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM), and Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) had attacked on the ultimate lap and held off the chasing peloton.
Ahead of the ultimate, Lidl-Trek tried to make it a tough race with the intention to drop different sprinters, specifically Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), who might problem Balsamo in a dash. Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini each attacked from the peloton, trying to kind a powerful breakaway. Their efforts have been unsuccessful, so the crew dedicated Deignan, Longo Borghini, and Lauretta Hanson to chasing down solo escapee Amber Kraak (FDJ-Suez) as a substitute.
They have been making inroads into Kraak’s two-minute benefit, and with Kool quickly dropped from the peloton, issues have been trying good. As the race entered the final six kilometres, Longo Borghini made one final pull to reel in Kraak, nonetheless 15 seconds forward, whereas Balsamo was well-positioned on the wheel of Shirin van Anrooij.
Lippert’s assault didn’t take the crew abruptly – Van Anrooij was the second rider to react, proper after Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) and earlier than Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) and Dygert. Balsamo adopted swimsuit in Dygert’s slipstream.
However, the previous German champion’s acceleration up the steep Bosse du Lezot was an excessive amount of for everybody. Bredewold and Dygert had joined forces, and behind them, Van Anrooij pulled Balsamo, inching ever nearer to the duo in entrance of them – however they might by no means shut the final 10-metre hole and began shedding floor once more.
When issues behind Lippert, Bredewold, and Dygert got here again collectively, forming a chase group of about 20 riders, Van Anrooij was nonetheless recovering from her earlier all-out effort, and Balsamo had no different teammates left. Movistar Team, SD Worx-Protime, and Canyon-SRAM understandably had no real interest in chasing, and as riders checked out one another, the entrance trio (Bredewold and Dygert had caught Lippert within the meantime) gained the essential seconds that meant they might keep away.
With a really robust line-up, Lidl-Trek have been arguably the crew that dominated the race, however the consequence confirmed that neither that power nor a tactic that gave the impression to be working completely till lower than 10 minutes from the end are a assure for fulfillment in biking.
