GP Lucien Van Impe: Charlotte Kool sprints to much needed win after a wind and rain soaked race in Belgium

Though she had a stage win at the Baloise Ladies Tour in mid-July, Kool had a difficult Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and was forced out of the Grand Tour after finishing over the time limit on stage 7. The win will be a great relief to her and her Belgian team.

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For its third edition the GP Lucien Van Impe climbed to become a 1.Pro race, taking its place in the second tier of pro racing, and attracted a strong start list, with eight World Teams taking to the Belgian roads.

Covering 140km and starting and finishing in Erpe Mere, the riders first tackled a long loop to the south-west which included three well known Flemish climbs, La Houppe, Leberg and Hostellerie.

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With those done, the race covered five undulating laps of 12.5km around the finish town before a slightly uphill finish.

A rash of attacks punctuated the early kilometres, though no one was able to establish a lead anywhere near one minute, and even when heavy rain and crosswinds split the peloton, the attacks persisted, though still no one got away.

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Finally, as the race entered the closing circuits, Sofia Arici (Vini Fantini-BePink) and Tirza Wisse (Volkerwessels) escaped, building a lead of just over one minute, eking out a few more seconds on the second lap.

On the penultimate lap, with their lead down to 30 seconds, three riders tried to bridge, succeeding only in dragging the peloton with them, and Arici and Wisse were caught. More attacks came and went, but the day was set to conclude in a bunch sprint.