Lidl-Trek may not have walked away from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with the victory they had hoped for 127km earlier at the ‘t Kuipke velodrome in Gent.
The US team finished the race in Ninove with third and fourth place, having animated the day and placed two riders in the winning move, attacking repeatedly in the final before missing out on victory in the finishing sprint.
In the end, it was Elisa Longo Borghini who stepped on the podium at Omloop for the first time in her career of 13 starts, while 22-year-old Shirin van Anrooij ended her debut at the Belgian season opener in fourth.
“I can be very happy. The team rode really well, and it was the plan to go early and try to break teams apart,” Longo Borghini told Cyclingnews after the race. “That’s what we did, and we put ourselves in a good position because I was in the front, and Shirin was in a group behind.”
The Italian champion jumped off the front of the peloton with just over 30km left to run in the race, going solo and then catching the day’s breakaway 6km later. As SD Worx-Protime led the chase behind, she kept pushing on, surviving until the Muur van Geraardsbergen before the small but powerful group made it across.
Among the riders were eventual winner Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease A Bike) and runner-up Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), the quartet going clear over the top to contest the Bosberg and, eventually, the finish.
“We tried to break away from Marianne and Lotte,” Longo Borghini said of her and Van Anrooij’s aggressive moves on the run towards Ninove. “We knew that the chances were slim, but we still tried. After that, we just went for the sprint. We knew that we’d probably end up in third or fourth, but we tried to win the race, and that’s the most important thing.”
Team directeur sportif Jeroen Blijlevens said that the team had stuck to the plan for the day, one which included Longo Borghini’s long-range move with the Elveerenburg, Muur, and Bosberg left to run. Even if they didn’t come away with the win they had hoped for, that was an important takeaway from the race.
“We made a plan, and they evolved the plan, and that’s important. I hope they’re also happy with the plan, and now we can make steps from there,” he said outside the Lidl-Trek team bus as the podium ceremony played out in the distance.
“If the whole team do the plan, you do a good race. Of course, we’d most like to win. But if you have a bad plan and bad race with the riders and you win, then it’s also no good.”
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