KBK / Omloop van het Hageland
Belgian gets good support from young team-mates, remains at the front in second Flemish classic of 2020; Serbian champion in the mix after Biannic's breakaway, Blues' work for the finalsprint.
Leaving aside (yet another) tenth spot by Albert Torres and Sebastián Mora at the Madison race of the Berlin Track Worlds held on Sunday, the Movistar Team’s two opening races of the Belgian month of March had two two-ten finishes as a result. Jurgen Roelandts was 10th at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, behind solo winner Kasper Asgreen (DQT), while Jelena Erić took 10th at the Omloop van het Hageland, notched up by the world’s most dominante sprinter, Lorena Wiebes (PHV).
The women’s race was a flurry of attacks from the start, which contributed to make the inevitable bunch sprint considerably harder. At the moves featured notably two of the Movistar Team riders: Alba Teruel, ahead into the first half of the race, and Aude Biannic, brought back 25km before the end from a strong, 15-woman group. The riders directed by Jorge Sanz -with González, Gutiérrez and Barbara Guarischi pushing hard- then switched their intentions to supporting Erić, who also hopes to put her decent top speed to good use with the Blues.
At the final sprint in the men’s event also showed up Roelandts, really well supported by his Movistar team-mates, with four members -Jürgen, Edu Prades (15th), Matteo Jorgenson and Johan Jacobs (who turned 23 on Sunday)- inside a bunch working hard yet unfruitfully to chase down Asgreen. The Dane would end up winning with three seconds over the top sprinters. The Pablo Lastras-led squad is returning home today, while the Blue ladies will stay in Belgium for an additional two days to tackle Tuesday’s Le Samyn.