Nicole Cooke's Vision 1 Racing entered the race confident the performance would be good. Nicole's form is improving all the time and Christel and Vicki Whitelaw were also very strong last week in the Binda World Cup.
After 24km the race hit the first hill and there was a frantic 10km with hills, cobbles crashed and mechanical problems for lots of rides.
Vision 1 looked to have got through quite well, until Debby van den Berg was brought down in a crash. Gabby Day, riding behind Debby at the time put her cyclo-cross skills to the test as she avoided the crash, taking a diversion through someones front garden.
Will all the riders back in the bunch, it looked like a smooth ride until the next hilly section of the course after 70km's.
Some minor difficulty followed for Vicki when someone crashed into her and broke her shoe, then followed by a flat over a nasty section of cobbles.
The business end of the race was approaching, and following a string of attacks and sustained speed at the front, the peleton finaly started to split, leaving a smaller group in front.
This was further split when World Cup Leader Marriane Vos attacked over the Bosberg. She was however brought back to the much reduced lead group of 18 riders with 2.5km to go.
Vicki Whitelaw worked very hard for Nicole in the finish and they turned the final corner in 1st and 2nd. Nicole finished 4th and was pleased with the ride and the performance of the team.
Gabby Day commented, 'It was hard, really hard. But I'm feeling strong and worked hard for the team for over 100km's. I'm pleased to have helped us to a great result and I'm looking forward to Fleche in a couple of weeks.'
Vision 1 Racing team manager Stefan Wyman added, 'I am really pleased with the attitude and performance of the team. They all went out there and gave 100% and the way they prepared for the race over the last 2 days was fantastic. We've come together into a strong unit very quickly so I'm looking forward with confidence'.
