Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Women's race neutralised after catching up with slow men's peloton
Mar 02 2019 08:12 pm CET
Image: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad logo
The women's race of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was neutralised for several minutes as it had begun to catch up with the rear of the men's peloton.
The women's edition of the Belgian classic started eight minutes after the men's edition, with the expectation being that the two pelotons would never meet.
However, the pace in the women's race was higher than that of the fastest expected schedule, where the men's peloton seemed to be out on a Saturday training ride.
Bigla's Nicole Hanselmann was leading the women's race when she was first asked to slow down, and then ordered to stop racing altogether. The chasers and the peloton soon joined up, and all needed to wait for several minutes in the cold until they were allowed to resume. The gaps were maintained by allowing the leader and chasers to start with the previous intervals.
It wasn't the first moment of concern on the day. Minutes earlier, the chasing group was confronted with a car driving in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this did not cause any further incidents.
March 2, 2019: The day that a women's race needed to stop and wait because the men were too slow.
— CyclingPub (@CyclingPub) March 2, 2019
That's some good ammunition for women's cycling!#OHN19 #OHNwomen
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