Chantal Blaak wins women's Le Samyn

The Boels-Dolmans team continued its storming start to 2015 with a win at Le Samyn on Wednesday, courtesy of Chantal Blaak. The Belgian race started in Quaregnon and finished in Dour after 112 kilometers of racing. Le Samyn was Boels-Dolmans’ eighth win to date this season. It was also Blaak’s first win of 2015

Hailing from the Netherlands, which is also her team’s home base, Blaak bested fellow countrywoman Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv). Third place went to Orica-AIS’ Emma Johansson.

Blaak sprinted to win after a lead group of six, which included her teammate, Megan Guarnier, was brought back to the peloton. “Megan controlled this lead group for us, but did not cooperate with the others, because she did not want a sprint with riders like Emma Johansson and Amy Pieters,” said Blaak.

“When the peloton came really close in the final kilometers, Ellen van Dijk motorpaced me to the group. When we closed the gap, I had to start sprinting right away. Last Saturday we were very strong as a team in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad; it was a shame we could not win that race. That’s why we really wanted this victory.”

Blaak, 25, rode to a fourth-place finish at Omloop, which van der Breggen won. She also tuned up her form at the Ladies Tour of Qatar in February, where her teammate, Lizzie Armitstead, won the GC.

“It’s incredible how good we are doing at this moment, everybody is racing very strong,” said Blaak. “It didn’t take any time at all to fit in with [the] riders [on Boels-Dolmans].”