Grace Brown (FDJ -SUEZ) landed the biggest win of her career as she edged a sprint containing Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
After surviving a scare when misjudging a corner and having to briefly show off her cyclo-cross skills, Brown proved the strongest in a tactical finale. against the two big favourites plus Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale) and the Canyon/ /SRAM pair of Kasia Niewiadoma and Elise Chabbey.
Brown, Chabbey and Cadzow were part of a strong group of nine riders that bridged across from the peloton to join early attacker Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) with 60 kilometres to go.
Gigante herself put in a mightily impressive performance as the lone breakaway rider for much of the race and even picked up a €3,000 bonus for being the lead rider over the first six categorised climbs, but those efforts finally caught up with her on the fearsome Cote de la Redoute.
Chabbey dropped the hammer on the steep slopes and shredded the lead group to just three while behind, Fenix-Deceuninck showed the first signs of life in the peloton and splintered into just the main favourites and a handful of their teammates.
But while the peloton slowed and swelled again after the climb, the lead trio pressed on with a three-minute gap but now without SD Worx, Lidl-Trek and Visma respresented at the front.
It was Longo Borghini who sent her troops to the front with Ellen van Dijk, then Amanda Spratt slashing the leaders’ advantage to less than a minute before the decisive Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons.
The Italian – runner-up in this race 12 months ago in a head-to-head sprint with Vollering – was matched only by the Dutch champion and reigning Fleche-Wallone champion Niewiadoma when she attacked out of a dramatically reduced peloton.
The lead trio survived the Roche-aux-Faucons but were caught on the last uncategorised climb before the finish, with Longo Borghini looking like she’d played a tactical masterclass when she attacked immediately as Vollering paused to draw breath.
She was pulled back through, and despite the indomitable Riejanne Markus giving everything for Marianne Vos behind, it was clear that the winner would come from the lead six.
The Canyon/ /SRAM pair were the most active in the finale but neither could break free while Brown just looked happy to be there after almost crashing when she locked out on a roundabout in the final stages.
Niewiadoma attempted to go long in the final kilometre and initially pulled a gap of 10 metres but Cadzow dragged her back before Longo Borghini jumped to draw her back and then even put a small amount of space to the other four riders as the distance ticked down.
But Brown timed her jump to absolute perfection, opening her sprint with around 150 metres to go and benefitting from both riders’ slipstream to just sneak ahead of Longo Borghini for victory.
Vollering completed the podium ahead of Chabbey, Niewiadoma and Cadzow while Vos won the sprint behind – but 52 seconds behind Brown who picked the perfect stage for her first road race win of the season.