Annemiek van Vleuten became the best Dutch rider on Thursday in the opening time trial of the Giro Donne. The Olympic champion finished sixth, while American Kristen Faulkner was fastest. In the Tour of Belgium Annemarie Worst booked her first professional victory on the road.
Faulkner came through Cagliari over Cagliari over 4.7 kilometers to a time of 5 minutes 45 seconds. She was 4 seconds faster than the Australian Georgia Baker. Elisa Balsamo, the reigning world road champion from Italy, came in third.
Van Vleuten was ten seconds slower than Faulkner. It was her first stage for the Movistar rider, who won the Giro Donne twice, since she announced on Wednesday that she would stop cycling next season.
Van Vleuten was a fraction faster than Lucinda Brand, who finished in seventh place. Brand new Dutch champion Riejanne Markus (eighth) and Anouska Koster (tenth) also finished in the top ten.
For Markéta Hájková it became a time trial to forget quickly. When the Czech wanted to pull away, she turned right off the podium and fell hard to the ground. Hájková seems to be getting off reasonably well, because she was able to continue her way quickly.
The Giro Donne will remain in Sardinia for two more days with two flat stages. Then follows the crossing to the mainland where the stage race continues on Monday. The Giro d’Italia for women lasts until Sunday 10 July.
For app users, tap the tweet above to watch Markéta Hájková’s remarkable fall.
Sausage records first professional victory at Muur van Geraardsbergen
In the Tour of Belgium, Worst won the last stage. After 108.5 kilometers the Dutch came first on top of the Muur van Geraardsbergen.
Sausage kept the Belgian Shari Bossuyt and her compatriot Anne van Rooijen behind. With Loes Adegeest (sixth), Inge van der Heijden (seven), Nina Buijsman (ninth) and Femke Markus (tenth), four more Dutch women finished in the top ten.
For Worst it meant her first professional victory on the road. The 26-year-old Plantur-Pura rider is especially successful in cyclo-cross. At the World Championships she already won silver twice and in 2018 she became European champion cyclo-cross.
The overall victory in the Tour of Belgium went to the Polish Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka. She finished fourth in the final stage and ousted New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston from first place in the general classification.