Marianne Vos pips Lotte Kopecky to clinch first ever Omloop Het Nieuwsblad title, Elisa Longo Borghini third

Marianne Vos added the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad title to her glittering CV after pipping Lotte Kopecky to the line after a thrilling sprint finish.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider returned to her best to see off the challenge of Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime) and secure the victory on her debut in the competition.

Longo Borghini Elisa (Lidl-Trek) completed the podium in third.

It all came down to a sprint finish, with four riders in contention. It was an elite four too, with Kopecky, Longo Borghini and Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) battling hard but unable to drop the best women’s sprinter of all time.

The two Lidl-Trek riders had given it everything to break Vos and Kopecky in the previous few kilometres, constantly going on counter attacks, forcing the others to chase back again and again in the closing stages – but to no avail.

“Well, of course yeah, to win a race like this, you want to give it your all. I couldn’t believe it would be enough for the win today but I’m really, really happy,” said an exhausted but exhilarated Vos straight afterwards.

The women set off on a dank, grey February day for what always looked like being a tough day of racing. It was mercifully dry but that was about all that could be said for the conditions.

A break managed to get away at quite an early stage, but with none of the favourites present the peloton was content to let it go. That could have proved foolhardy, with the lead growing to well over six minutes at one stage.

But there was so much experience in the peloton and with 40km to go, the first cat and mouse games began. The lead started to reduce – it briefly grew as crash after crash disrupted the chase – and then it started to reduce again as Longo Borghini went on the attack over the cobblestones of Haaghoek.

The Italian managed to make that move decisive, taking advantage of the chaos behind as the peloton fractured and no team took charge. SD Worx then put Wiebes on front to chase, but by then Longo Borghini was gone.

The Italian caught the initial break and dropped them with ease, but behind the chase was finally organised, slim-lined and packed with the talent of Kopecky and Vos, with SD Worx’s Demi Vollering and Lorena Wiebes in the mix as well.

Longo Borghini was unable to keep so much talent at bay, caught at the top of the Muur by Kopecky and Vos with van Anrooij in tow. From there, the four riders started playing a game in the last 20km with each other, with attack after attack, a few words here and there and plenty of tactics coming into play.

The Belgian defending champion tried to drop her Dutch rival on the Bosberg briefly, but Vos was having none of it – while Longo Borghini briefly looked to have run out of gas, only to put in a sterling effort to catch back up. As for van Anrooij, she was putting in the best ride of her career to date.

Kopecky did everything she could on the final cobbled section to drop Vos, knowing that taking her all the way to a flat finish would be a huge error. But Vos was riding up the small crests with ease, the hills and bumps causing her no issues whatsoever.

Considering that she had major iliac artery surgery just last year, Vos very much looked back to her old self. By the time she set off on her sprint in the final 500 metres, the result was never in doubt as she adds another title to her illustrious tally.

Most of the women will take a few days off now, before hoping for a warmer time of it when they take on the next Classic, Strade Bianche on March 02.