The last race day of the season for the Women’s program saw them take on Binche – Chimay – Binche, taking place on the traditional local circuits and the cobbled drag before the finish line. Team Picnic PostNL set out with the goal of riding an attacking race and putting pressure on the other teams, with Rachele Barbieri a fast finishing option if it came back together for the finale.
With the early breakaway caught at around 30 kilometres to go the team started the attacks once more, with Josie Nelson initiating the first move. She built up a gap of around 20 seconds but no one else joined her and the peloton then made the catch. Once she was brought back, Franziska Koch then went clear in a group of five, but once more they weren’t given much of an advantage by the peloton. Megan Jastrab then followed a dangerous looking move in the finale, but things ultimately came down to a reduced sprint to the line in Binche. Barbieri showed a good sprint and finished with some good speed, overtaking multiple riders in the last few hundred metres, taking fifth place with the team on the day.
Barbieri said: “It was a nice race today. We decided to race aggressively and wanted to keep things going until the last cobbles, and that’s exactly what we did with Josie, Franzi and Megan covering the moves. Then on the cobbles, Franzi tried to attack in the final and she made the group stretch out. I came with speed in the last metres but it was just too late for a podium place. Anyway, I’m personally really happy about the fifth place after some time without a result. This has made my morale really high now thinking about the next season already, as we head into the off-season.”