Before that, there is going to be a stream of Omloop van het Hageland today, the women's equivalent to Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne in that it's a flat to rolling race whichalways takes place a day after Omloop het Nieuwsblad.
Obviously yesterday we had Omloop, I've been a bit distracted by the Nordic Worlds but it looks like Boels continue apace, despite their losses in personnel, with a strong solo victory by Chantal Blaak. Boels also got another name to the podium, as in the sprint of the just under 40 riders left in the péloton at the end, while nobody could stop Marta Bastianelli, who is of course one of the more established sprinting names in the sport at this stage (now with Virtu, which will take some getting used to after several years in fluorescent yellow), the next best sprinter was young Dutchwoman Jip van den Bos, who attracted quite a bit of hype a few years ago with her showings with Parkhotel Valkenburg before being signed by Boels and serving her domestique apprenticeship. Interestingly behind that you had Annemiek van Vleuten, as ever returning ahead of schedule and stronger than expected, because Annemiek is made of titanium and awesomeness - she somehow managed to outsprint Alexis Ryan, which is no mean feat. Most of the other biggest nanes in the race were in that group - van der Breggen, Mackaij, Cecchini, Niewiadoma, van Dijk, Ensing, Moolman-Pasio, with a few like Cromwell, Brand and Longo Borghini trailing in a few seconds behind.
I also didn't mention much of the Comunidad Valenciana Tour, after hyping the Xorret del Catí stage which was of course decisive in the GC (there was essentially one rolling stage, two flat stages and the XDC mountain stage). There was some pretty comprehensive coverage, in fact.
Stage 1
Dramatic breakaway in the hills from an attack by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, group consisting of her, teammate Leah Thomas, Mavi García, Karol-Ann Canuel, Ruth Winder and Soraya Paladin. Cille did all the pacing, for reasons unknown when she had a teammate in the group. Cille then dropped away from the group after taking the mountains points, so it all got a bit strange as the limited motos meant we were only following the front group and were unaware how close the chasers were getting - and it was very close indeed, as Winder attacked her break mates and made it to the line with 2" advantage over Paladin and Canuel, but only 5" over the strongest in the péloton and the remains of her break and 10" over the rest.
Stage 2
Bunch sprint stage, won by Lotta Lepistö ahead of Maria Giulia Confalonieri and Elena Cecchini.
Stage 3
The all-important Xorret del Catí stage, with an unexpected result! Front group early on the climb consisting of Soraya Paladin, Cille, Ensing and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, but Clara Koppenburg of WNT was off the front from earlier and climbing very strongly indeed. Next, Soraya was riding along with Ensing and Canuel in her wheel as riders were left strewn all over the road. Then Paladin dropped Canuel and Canuel was caught by Cille who had previously dropped away but was regaining her strength. And then Eider Merino arrived from behind and rode past all of them; simultaneously Paladin dropped Ensing, but the former speedskater rallied, and we then had Koppenburg up front with Moolman-Pasio, Paladin and Ensing yo-yoing off them, and Erica Magnaldi was there also as WNT were really pulling out the stops. As they had two riders, WNT attacked, with Koppenburg going first with only Paladin following, and then with nobody following at all as the group fell apart, at more or less the same time as Eider established a visual with them behind. 23-year-old Koppenburg is far from a mug on the climbs - she was 9th in the Emakumeen Bira last year - but this is a huge statement of intent compared to her previous results where she was a domestique in this terrain for the same Moolman-Pasio and Ludwig that she beat here. She took nearly a minute on the chasing duo of Paladin and Moolman-Pasio, and a further 20 seconds on Merino and Ensing. Ludwig and Canuel paid for their efforts and fell to nearly 2 minutes, with a group of Julie van de Velde (great ride from her), Katie Hall, surprise Zoncolan top 10 Katrine Aalerud and Pauliena Rooijakkers catching and passing them.
Stage 4
Straightforward sprint stage, WNT wouldn't let a break go early, Trek wouldn't let a break go late, Lepistö took a second stage win. A few time gaps within the péloton but little of importance as the key names stayed in front of it.
Final GC:
1 Clara Koppenburg (WNT) GER 11'06'28
2 Soraya Paladin (Alé-Cipollini) ITA +41" (QOM)
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) RSA +48"
4 Eider Merino Cortazar (Movistar) ESP +1'26"
5 Janneke Ensing (Team Sunweb) NED +1'36"
6 Erica Magnaldi (WNT) ITA +1'47"
7 Julie van de Velde (Lotto-Soudal) BEL +1'52"
8 Katherine Hall (Boels-Dolmans) USA +1'55"
9 Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels-Dolmans) CAN +1'59"
10 Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Bigla) DEN +2'04"