Driedaagse Brugge - De Panne

Frenchwoman finishes with, González, Jasinska, Teruel into lead group at new WorldTour classic, in windy, cold, rainy conditions. Minor crashes for 'Jasi', Alicia, Gloria Rodríguez did not hurt Blues.

Despite a 15-woman breakaway leading the race for almost the entire 151km, it was down to a bunch sprint won by Jolien D’Hoore (MTS) at the end of the Three Days of Bruges – De Panne, a new Belgian event in the UCI Women’s WorldTour held under insistent rain, on windy roads with plenty of nerves inside the peloton.

The Movistar Team directed by Jorge Sanz rode again solidly against the world’s best squads in the fourth event of the top-tier series. Even after crashes suffered by Małgorzata Jasińska, Alicia González -in the beginning of the race- and Gloria Rodríguez -around 50km from the finish-, both without serious injuries, the telephone squad worked hard near the front of the bunch with their best classics specialists. Aude Biannic was 21st at the finish, with four of the Blues -including Alicia González, Jasińska and Alba Teruel- inside the 60-strong group together at the end, following a series of crosswind accelerations.

The Spanish squad started in De Panne a run of five races in Belgium, which will include, starting with Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem –where the Movistar Team will feature a squad identical to today’s-, plenty of hills and cobbles on the road to the legendary Ronde van Vlaanderen, on Sunday 1st April.

Picture (c): Thomas Maheux