She commenced with a raced at Omloop het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and Omloop het van Hageland on Sunday.

The two races served as an appetiser for the more important Spring classics to come in the coming months. 

Kitchen was happy to find her legs and form for the weekend’s races and finish with a top ten result on Sunday in a fast sprint finish in Tielt-Winge. 

“I’m really happy with how I felt in the races and that is a credit to my coaches, Kev and Brad, and to the team for helping me get to this level already,” Kitchen said.

“I know that with my feeling and with the strength of my teammates we are going to achieve some big results this year and that has me really excited.”

“Nieuwsblad was a nervous opener as always but I had a great time racing with my teammates for the first time and also working with sports director Jeroen again, I made a small mistake personally in the race.”

Sunday was a slightly more relaxed affair with less cobbles and climbs compared with Saturday but with a nervous peloton, the race still proved to be tough and with multiple crashes throughout.

While WM3 rode for an aggressive race, a bunch sprint seemed the only outcome for the day with Lauren rounding out the top ten in a sprint at 80kph.

“The finish sprint really wasn’t suited to me so we tried to avoid a bunch sprint and looked to establish a break, but it just wasn’t to be,” Kitchen said.

“I think I could have had a better result in the finish but I need to work a bit more on these situations.”

Next up for the Port Macquarie cyclist is the opening world tour race for the team at Strade Bianche in Italy on Saturday.