Shirin van Anrooij had an excellent general on Wednesday afternoon for the Tour of Flanders, which is on Sunday. The Kapelle rider from Lidl-Trek finished Dwars door Vlaanderen, this time a tumultuous race, with a second place. She lost the millimeter sprint to Marianne Vos. “I can go to Sunday with a good feeling,” she said afterwards.
Straight through Flanders is a test for Flanders Most Beautiful. Last year Van Anrooij also rode both races; She came ninth in the appetizer, eighth in the main course. Her top ranking on Wednesday therefore bodes well.
The match had a strange course. The race was neutralized at 60 kilometers from the finish. In the caravan of the men’s race that started earlier, an accident had occurred with one of the support vehicles. To give the emergency services space, the women could not cross two Flemish mountains, the Hotond and the Knokteberg. About 15 kilometers of the course were then completed.
Lidl-Trek was the most active after the break of about 20 minutes. The team staged a coup on two cobblestone sections in close succession. The five of them caused a break in the peloton. Three of them dropped out again after their executioner’s work, leaving Shirin van Anrooij and Elisa Longo Borghini. And they were accompanied by Puck Pieterse, Marianne Vos, Lotte Kopecky and Letizia Paternoster.
At 11 kilometers from the finish, Van Anrooij then jumped away. Fox went along. In the four behind it, everything had to come from Kopecky. Longo Borghini initially did some nice stopping work, but 4 kilometers from the end she came up with a counter reaction. However, it foundered; the gap of about 10 seconds was maintained until the end.
(read more below the photo)
In the last 100 meters, Vos knew that she was the stronger one in a sprint. Van Anrooij got out of her back and came next to Vos, but winning was just not possible. “I think I sprinted well. I’m working on that too,” she said. “But Marianne was simply the strongest. This was the highest possible.”
The Zeelander had saved himself at the end. She heard in her ears that Longo Borghini was returning and wanted to wait for her, because the Italian’s chances of winning might be greater. “Keeping my legs still was actually not for me. But when the gap did not close, I had to sprint anyway.”
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Tags: Shirin van Anrooij tumultuous Dwars door Vlaanderen highest Sports Zeeland
