Thursday was a masterclass in team tactics from Team DSM at the women’s edition of the Classic Brugge-De Panne. Teammates Pfeiffer Georgi and Megan Jastrab worked together to break the field of contenders and catapult Georgi to the win in the one-day race.
How it played out
A breakaway group of 25 put around three minutes of space on the peloton after a wild day in the crosswinds as the race was hitting its pivotal moment. It’s always a good thing to have a teammate in the breakaway and DSM took full advantage. With 12K to go in the race, Jastrab and Georgi went to the front of the group and pushed the pace, causing a split (and then an unfortunate hard crash involved Alice Barnes of Human Powered Health and Julie de Wilde of Fenix-Deceuninck).
The break was down to six riders, but included in that was sprint sensation Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx and classics specialist and defending race champion Elisa Balsamo of Trek-Segafredo.
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For the DSM duo, there was still more work to do. They needed to make it a hard finish.
The next move came with just over 7K to go. Jastrab once again went to the front and ramped it up, but Georgi hung back at the end of the line. Jastrab gave a flick of the elbow, but had no takers to assist on the pacemaking. That’s when Georgi pounced.
The 22-year-old British rider counter attacked and that move proved to be winning moment of the race. Balsamo tried to respond, but didn’t have the legs. The remaining riders in the group failed to get organized and Georgi rode off to glory, scoring her first-career WorldTour victory by one minute, 10 seconds over the rest of the bunch.
Balsamo beat out Wiebes in a sprint to the line for second. Jastrab, for her efforts, grabbed an individual fourth place finish on the day, but of course, it was all about the team victory and she played a massive role. Georgi was right there waiting for Jastrab right near the finish line to celebrate the day with her teammate.
“We knew we couldn’t come to finish with any of them because they’re all really fast,” Georgi said to GCN about the remaining women in the final breakaway. “So we just knew that we were going to attack. Megan attacked first and set me up and I just went as hard as I could.”
Women’s Classic Brugge–De Panne Top 5
- Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM)
- Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo)
- Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx)
- Megan Jastrab (Team DSM)
- Shari Bossuyt (Canyon//SRAM Racing)
Dan is a writer and editor living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and before coming to Runner’s World and Bicycling was an editor at MileSplit. He competed in cross country and track and field collegiately at DeSales University.
