Anna VAN DER BREGGEN has won the final stage of the Lotto Belisol Belgium Tour. The Rabo-Liv rider finished solo on the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Emma JOHANSSON finished second for Orica-AIS while Annemiek VAN VLEUTEN rounded up the podium for Rabo-Liv. She also took the final overall win in this year’s Lotto-Belisol Belgium Tour.
“I had never done the Muur before,” Van der Breggen reacts. “So it’s special to win here.”
The race started with an early breakaway but Rabo-Liv, without Marianne VOS who didn’t start the last stage, missed it.
“It was a bit stupid we missed that break of six riders. We were down to five riders. without Marianne. Because Thalita and I wanted to save energy for the Muur and Anna Knauer just comes off the track, the chasing came mostly down to Lucinda.”
De Jong and Van der Breggen helped Brand close the gap in the final, just before the first time over the Muur.
“The first time on the Muur nothing happened but then Sofie DE VUYST attacked. Nobody reacted so I did,” Van der Breggen explains. “Johansson and Van Vleuten bridged towards us.”
With Van Vleuten, Van der Breggen and De Jong on the podium, Rabo-Liv’s tactics were designed to keep the latter on that third spot.
“Emma wanted to ride of course but we didn’t want to let the gap get too big otherwise Thalita would fall off the podium and we wanted that 1-2-3 for the team. So the cooperation in the breakaway stopped and that was the moment I went solo.”
Van der Breggen finished seven seconds ahead of Johansson and Van Vleuten. “I am happy with the victory. In the prologue I went the wrong way and knew that getting the overall win was nearly impossible with a pitbull like Annemiek. And I didn’t want to threaten her overall victory. That was our agreement here,” Van der Breggen concludes.
