12th March: Sint-Pieters-Leeuw – Oetingen
Team Picnic PostNL’s Women’s program was back racing for more mid-week cobbled action in Belgium on Wednesday. Awaiting them were a few longer and then shorter laps near Oetingen, which featured punchy climbs and cobbles. Challenging weather conditions made for a hard day out and Megan Jastrab was involved in an early crash. She was able to return to the bunch though and the day truly became a race of attrition with riders dropping from the peloton one-by-one. Coming into the last lap Jastrab and Charlotte Kool were still up there representing the team, but unfortunately Kool was caught up in a crash heading into the finale after she made her way back to the leading group. Jastrab then fought as hard as she could to the line but after her earlier efforts didn’t have a full finish kick left in the legs; taking 11th place at the end of the day.
Jastrab said: “Today was a hard and chaotic day. There was a bit of everything with the cobbles, climbs, crashes, and tough weather. I slipped on the wet cobbles early on the in the race and went down. I needed to do a bike change and had a hard chase back as there were lots of crashes and gaps I had to close. Once back, I was able to follow moves and position well in the key moments with Charlotte for most of the race. We communicated well with each other and knew we both needed to try on the last climb before the sprint. Sadly, Charlotte went down in the last lap. I tried my best on the last climb, but I was gapped a bit over the top. I came back with around one kilometre to go, but didn’t have the legs in the final to sprint. I am disappointed in my final as I really wanted to finish it off. With the hard start for me with the crash and still some discomfort from my crash in Omloop, I think I can take some positives for the coming races. I’m also just happy to back racing the Belgium spring races again with the team this year.”