Picture 1 of 8
Sofie van Rooijen took the U23 ladies’s highway race title on the UEC Highway European Championships, sprinting to victory from a full peloton in Hasselt.
The 22-year-old scored the Netherlands’ third gold medal of the week after an ideal run-in to the road for her and her crew. Her Dutch teammate and lead-out girl Scarlett Souren completed off a one-two in second place.
Eleonora Gasparrini completed third to take bronze – Italy’s fourth medal of the Championships.
Van Rooijen’s win got here after her Dutch squad had managed the ultimate kilometres of the 101km race, run over flat roads between Heusden-Zolder and Hasselt. The crew, which additionally included Ilse Pluimers and Nienke Vinke, shut down tried late assaults by a number of Italian riders in addition to Julia Kopecky (Czechia) and Wilma Aintila (Finland) to make sure a bunch dash end.
Earlier, Belgium had tried a number of strikes to ship riders clear as soon as the early break of Mikka Holm (Denmark) and Nela Slanikova (Czechia) had been reeled in, although no huge names managed to slide clear and disrupt the dash. Because the race hit the ultimate of the native laps round Hasselt some 14km out, a crash took a number of riders out of competition.
Finnish dash hope and newly topped U23 time trial champion Anniina Ahtosalo was amongst them, with the 21-year-old finally rolling house in 74th place at 1:42 down.
The Dutch crew got here via unaffected, nevertheless, preserving the lead group collectively for the ending dash, the place Souren delivered a textbook lead out for her commerce teammate Van Rooijen, staying near take silver as Van Rooijen sped forward to the blue-striped jersey of European U23 champion.
Outcomes
Outcomes powered by FirstCycling
