She quickly took the lead, and before long she was about 2 minutes and 18 miles ahead of all other competition. His momentum was strong. She was in the zone, so you can only imagine her shock, amazement and anger when she reached an at-grade intersection and race officials forced her to stop.
When I asked why she was forced to stop in the middle of the race when she was fine, the answer she received was more annoying than the fact that she had just been stopped. Hanselmann was told she had to stop and wait because she was riding so fast she was catching up with the men’s race, which started ten minutes before the women’s race.
They held Hanselmann there for just five minutes, giving her a leg up on the other women to make up for losing the large lead she had gained, but the damage was done. Hanselmann was furious and insisted the forced stop had ruined his momentum.
After a forced stop, she couldn’t find that furrow and ended up finishing 74th in the race.
Our women’s race at the Sint-Denijs-Boekel crossing at #OHNWomen #ohn19 is neutralized because the men’s race is too slow. The runners will leave at the same time
— OmloopHetNieuwsblad (@OmloopHNB) March 2, 2019
While race organizers insist Hanselmann had to stop just to keep the races separate and not because she was chasing the guys and making them look bad, people watching the race in person and via Twitter in direct were furious and the organizers blamed the organizers for the loss of Hanselmann.
Hanselmann later posted on her Instagram, “Maybe the other women should have fasted or the men should have slowed down.”
Either way, it’s clear organizers need to schedule races more in the future to avoid this kind of bad press again. However, Hanselmann didn’t quite break with that.
It’s only the beginning of the cycling season; They will have many more opportunities to beat the competition, regardless of gender.
