Carys Lloyd (Movistar) surprised everyone by winning the Ronde van Brugge ahead of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a chaotic, crash-marred sprint in Brugge.
Despite strong winds, the race did not break apart into echelons. Instead, the riders were showered by hail and rain, and on the second passage of the Brieversweg cobbles, Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) went on the attack.
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Pre-race favourite Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) was boxed in on the finishing straight, and instead Lloyd wound up her sprint on the right side of the road. Balsamo inched closer on the final metres but came up short against the 19-year-old Briton, who took her first-ever professional victory.
“We spoke about it in the bus as a little bit of a joke. My mechanic was like, ‘I’ll take you to the LEGO store, and you can buy anything if you win’, as a joke, but now, I was like, ‘oh my God, I’ve actually won’,” said Lloyd.
The 19-year-old profited from the chaos in the final but launched a clean and impressive sprint to beat everyone else.
“With about 500 metres to go, all the sprinters were just left with no lead-outs, and it was kind of just everyone for themselves. I saw 200 metres to go and was like, ‘OK, I just have to go for it and see what happens’. And it worked,” Lloyd was overjoyed.
And after the podium ceremony, she can look forward to a trip to the LEGO store.
“We will have to see, but maybe the most expensive thing I can find. Maybe see if I can make him [the mechanic] as broke as possible,” Lloyd finished.
How it unfolded
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