Nguyen Thi That (left) sprints to second place at the 25th Erondegemse Pijl cycling tournament. — Photo procyclingstats.com

The Asian champion, under jersey of the Belgian Lotto Soudal Ladies club, completed the 126km stage from Erpe - Mere to Erondegem with a time of 3hr 11.26min.

That was just a hair’s breadth behind winner Monique Van de Ree of BTC City Ljubljana of Slovenia. Sofie de Vuyst of Parkhotel Valkenburg club of the Netherlands finished third.

The Erondegemse Pijl event falls under the International Cycling Union umbrella which delivers points to high-ranked finishers.

This year it attracted more than 150 athletes.

That grabbed 30 points to improve her world ranking. She is currently No 120 and needs to enter top 50 to earn a spot in the Olympics 2020 in Tokyo.

VNS