Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the two-up sprint ahead of Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) to take the victory at a shortened Dwars door Vlaanderen, her second win of the season after winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Vos and Van Anrooij were part of a six-rider move that formed over the Doorn sector inside the final 30km, after the women's peloton had been neutralised and the route shortened due to a car accident up ahead of the race.
The pair then broke off the front of that group ahead of the final ascent, Nokere, building a lead out to 15 seconds.
Vos led the race through the final 3km, tightening her shoes through the final corner and into the finishing straight away. With 300 metres to go, she started her sprint to take the win ahead of Van Anrooij.
In a tactical race for the final podium spot, Letizia Paternoster (Liv Jayco AlUla) won the chase-group sprint for third, with Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) fourth, Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) fifth and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) sixth on the day.
"A lot has happened. There were attacks from the beginning and then we had this neutral part where the race was neutralised but then after the start was given again and straight away there were some new actions and from the cobbled section we had a new front group. The final I can’t really recall because so many things happened but in the end I was happy to be in a break with Shirin van Anrooij,” Vos said.
How it unfolded
The peloton tackled seven cobblestone sections and nine climbs across 129.9km with a start and finish in Waregem at the Dwars door Vlaanderen, often called the dress rehearsal for the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.
The original route was to cover the ascents of Hellestraat, Volkegemberg, Berg Ten Houte, Kanarieberg, Knokteberg-Trieu, Hotond, Ladeuze, Nokereberg, and Nokere before a 10km run-in to Waregem.
Several short-lived attacks occurred in the opening 25km; however, the peloton mainly remained intact as the race hit the first succession of ascents. The fast pace at the front of the peloton, primarily due to the efforts of Lidl-Trek, led to multiple splits in the field, with riders struggling to maintain connection with the front group.
The gap between the first two groups on course pushed out to nearly one minute after the second ascent, Volkegemberg. Unfortunately, it was near this point that Human Powered Health's Ruth Edward abandoned the race due to injuries from an earlier crash.
The first significant attack came from Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) right before the Kanarieberg. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) quickly followed the move and a breakaway formed that also included Niamh Fisher-Black and Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime, Elisa Longo Borghini and Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek), Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a bike), Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health), Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) and Thalita de Jong (Lotto Dstny Ladies).
The breakaway gained roughly 17 seconds on the chase group, but almost as soon as the action began, the race was halted by officials and the peloton neutralised with about 62km to go.
Organisers later confirmed on social media channels that officials neutralised the race due to an incident up ahead involving two cars from the men's race. Riders stopped at the side of the road for about 15 minutes, taking in food and water and putting on warmer race clothing as they waited to resume racing.
Officials restarted the race without a 17-second gap between the initial breakaway and chase group. The route was also shorted by about 20km and no longer included Knokteberg-Trieu and Hotond, but climbing resumed at the Ladeuze ascent.
Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) attacked over the Ladeuze, but Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) was quick to follow. Fem van Empel (Visma-Lease a Bike) was the next to go, followed by Pieterse, who caused significant separations in the field.
Lidl-Trek then put five riders on the reduced front group into the final 30km and over the Doorn sector. Six riders split off the front of that group, including Vos, Elisa Longo Borghini and Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek), Emma Norsgaard (Movistar), and Pieterse.
Notably, no SD Worx riders were present in the breakaway. With 25 km to go, Kopecky and Letizia Paternoster (Liv Jayco AlUla) jump across the five-second gap. However, Norsgaard was distanced from the move.
The six riders extended their lead to more than 30 seconds as Longo Borghini and Vos pulled the breakaway over the Herlegemstraat and continued to increase as the six riders entered the final finishing circuit.
Van Anrooij was the first to attack the breakaway, and with a quick reaction from Vos, the pair opened a 15-second lead with 12km to go and maintained that lead over the final ascent, Nokere.
Although Kopecky tried to bridge, Longo Borghini, Paternoster, and Pieterse sat on her wheel, unwilling to help the World Champion in the efforts to close the gap.
Vos and Van Anrooij hit the Herlegemstraat for the last time, stretching their lead out to 20 seconds inside the final six kilometres.
It was a tactical chase as Longo Borghini attacked with 3.7km out, forcing Kopecky to try to close the gap, Pieterse unable to help. Paternoster then took advantage of the race situation and jumped across to Longo Borghini, again forcing Kopecky to use her energy to close the gap.
As soon as Kopecky made contact, she attacked the quartet, Paternoster on her wheel and while the pair opened a small gap, Longo Borghini and Pieterse shut it down with 1.5km to go.
Up ahead, Vos pulled Anrooij under the flamme rouge with just eight seconds on the chasers. The former multiple-time World Champion then reached down and tightened her shoes through the final corner before launching her winning sprint with 300 metres to go and leaving Anrooij to settle for second place.a
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