No one was more surprised than the young Briton herself.
At Thursday’s Ronde van Brugge (formerly Brugge-De Panne), everything was pointing towards another victory for Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime). A pan-flat course, a race the Dutchwoman has won twice before, a strong SD Worx-Protime lineup … and with Wiebes undefeated in a bunch sprint since the 2024 Tour de France Femmes. Anything but a Wiebes win would have been a surprise.
And so it proved to be, with 19-year-old British rider Carys Lloyd (Movistar) taking her first win as a professional – in a WorldTour race no less – after navigating the final kilometres all on her own.
Opportunity, seized
On a wet day in northern Belgium, the peloton was heading for a regulation bunch sprint until a crash with 2.4 km to go changed the complexion of the finale. Only five riders went down – three of them from Fenix-Premier Tech, including sprint ace Charlotte Kool – but once the dust settled, many lead-out trains were in disarray.
Lloyd was left without teammates and instead found herself surfing the wheels of her rivals. She did so with apparent ease, holding her own in the wash of the peloton as she jostled with several riders, Wiebes included.
As the sprint wound up, most of the bunch ended up on the left of the road with Wiebes. The Dutchwoman, also without teammates, was boxed in, forced to stop pedalling several times, and never managed to find a way out of the scrum. Lloyd though, was on the other side of the road, and with just over 200 metres to go, the road opened up beautifully in front of her and she seized the opportunity.
“All the sprinters were just left with no lead-outs, and it was kind of just everyone for themselves,” Lloyd said later. “I saw 200 metres to go and was like, ‘OK, I just have to go for it and see what happens’. And it worked.”
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