The three stages for the women's race provided many great moments and outcomes for even the smaller teams. The Australia national team managed to not finish last in the teams classification and were only 17:31 behind the winning team showing promise of the young riders who may be looking for a new team in the future.
The final results:
General classification - Noemi Ruegg
Points classification - Noemi Ruegg
Queen of the mountains - Alyssa Polites
Youth classification - Eleonora Ciabocco
Teams classification - UAE Team ADQ
Over in the men's race which started a few days later Sam Welsford (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) was starting off well winning the first two stages and briefly leading GC until Javier Romo (Movistar Team) came and took the Orcha jersey on stage 3 winning by 5 seconds over Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) who made up places to 2nd on GC. Stage 4 saw a win by Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) while Laurence Pithe (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) was relegated from 4th to 72nd, the time gap between first and second on Gc was reduced down to 4 seconds.
At the other end of the pack after stage 1 we find Geraint Thomas already 3:35 down on GC suggesting that he is taking his last season easy and is not fully trying to win but rather to help his team. After stage 2 he was second to last with a gap of 7:57, after stage 3 20:27, after stage 4 22:59. As of stage 4 he is position 128 on GC out of 136 with 4 abandons so far.
Will the leaders be unseated in the last two stages, will UAE of Visma get the first pro wins of the year in road cycling with Visma having come second on stage 1 and UAE currently second on GC.
Classifications after stage 4:
General classification - Javier Romo
Points classification - Sam Welsford
King of the mountains - Fergus Browning
Youth classification - Albert Withen Philipsen
Teams classification - Lidl-Trek
Cyclocross news
UCI world cup Maasmechelen
Both Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel are on the start list meaning we may finally get the competition we are waiting for, it seems like they have been avoiding each other with crashes and injuries. If they spend too long fighting each other then there may be a possibility of another rider, probably from their respective countries winning. Out of the 85 names on the start list 11 are from the Netherlands and 15 are from Belgium.
There are similar numbers on the other start list, once again the big names are there and once again Belgium and The Netherlands have the most starters showing their commitment to the sport.
UCI world cup Hoogerheide
Both start lists for this race have less names but riders such as Mathieu van der Poel and Fem van Empel are still there probably making the most before the start of the road season and want to end the cyclocross one on a high. Some will be racing the day before so there may be signs of fatigue or they could be holding back the day before, these dynamics and strategies will make it an interesting race to watch.
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