Omloop van het Hageland: Kristen Faulkner wins with a massive solo breakaway

Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) stormed to a 55km solo victory at Omloop van het Hageland on Sunday with Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) and Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL) completing the podium behind the flying American.

Faulkner was the first of the pre-race favourites to make a substantial attack, making her move from the peloton with 66km left to race, and quickly looked like she would be a hard rider to bring back as she sailed across the gap of over a minute to the early escapee Nora Jenčušová (Bepink - Bongioanni) in less than 10km.

Inevitably, she made quick work of dropping Jenčušová, heading out on her own with 55km to go.

A few of the pre-race favourites did their best to try and make the bridge, with the likes of Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek), Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) doing their best to make their way across the gap. They were unable to make the gap drop significantly as Faulkner stayed in a very aero, very powerful position, building her advantage until the final few kilometres where she could relax and savour her first win of the year.

“I didn't plan to go solo, but so it happens,” Faulkner said after the finish.

“It was a really hard place to chase with a narrow climb so the peloton was strung out. I think the people around me were really gassed and couldn't follow.”

“We had a plan for me to attack. I didn't expect to be that early but it felt like the right spot. Once I was away solo I just had to go for it.”

A one women show defines the day

Nora Jenčušová and Meis Poland (VolkerWessels Women's Pro Cycling Team) were the first aggressors of the day, breaking away early with a two-up move animating the opening portion of the 129km race. The two made their move 8km into the day and the pair forged a gap of just over a minute. Jenčušova proved to be the stronger of the two and she then went solo with 90km to go.

After a few probing attacks from the peloton, Faulkner was the first to get a proper gap when she attacked with 64km to go and quickly took chunks out of the gap to Jenčušová. Some 8km later Faulkner had made it across the gap that was over a minute when she started. Then 2km after that Faulkner had dispensed Jenčušová and had an advantage of almost two minutes with 54km to go.

In response to the threat of Faulkner, Lidl-Trek played an attacking role sending Elisa Longo Borghini and Lizzie Dignan on the move as the race took on some of its more challenging parcour. Puck Pieterse was also keen to try and get away from the rest of the peloton as her road racing season continued.

Deignan attacked hard with 40km to go which finally brought several strong riders to the fore with hopes of bridging to Faulkner. She was quickly joined by Pieterse, Pfeiffer Georgi, Mischa Bredewold and Christine Majerus (SD Worx-Protime), Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ), Gladys Verhulst-Wild (FDJ-Suez) and crucially Faulkner’s teammate Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale).

Nevertheless, even with the group containing many of the team leaders Faulkner was able to extend her advantage, her power and prowess in the time trial were perfectly suited for a long solo raid on the rolling terrain of Flanders. With less than perfect cohesion from the group behind, it quickly became clear that the race was Faulkner’s to lose as her gap was over 2:30 with 20km to go.