Annemiek van Vleuten had hoped that she would add to her 2011 and 2021 victories in her farewell Tour of Flanders but a crash ended the World Champion's chances of leaving a final history making mark on the race.
Van Vleuten had come into the Belgian race with the form to compete for victory and had she achieved it would have been the first woman ever to have won the Tour of Flanders three times. However her last chance of taking that record before retiring at the end of the year slipped through her fingers with a slip of her wheel at 48km to go that put her on the back foot at a crucial stage of the 20th edition of the 158km race.
“I was well-positioned in the train of Trek-Segafredo but I got off the road into the gutter and fell. Two of my teammates waited for me, but the race was over, really. Such a shame in my last Tour of Flanders. Fortunately, I did not get injured,” said Van Vleuten.
Van Vleuten was quick to get up after the crash, which came just before the race-splitting cobbled climb of the Koppenberg and also resulted in Karlijn Swinkels (Jumbo-Visma) and Debora Silvestri (Zaaf Cycling) coming down. However, Van Vleuten's chain was dislodged so she also had to delay for a bike change and crested the Koppenberg almost two minutes behind the front group.
Despite having no hope of victory anymore, Van Vleuten continued to push on and eventually finished in 27th place as part of a peloton 3:45 minutes behind solo winner Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx).
“I thought ‘I’ll just keep pedalling’. In Flanders, you know that you get cheered on all the time, and I could enjoy that,” Van Vleuten said.
Though it was hard not to wonder what could have been, especially as Van Vleuten had just come from training in Tenerife where she was 'able to take it up a notch'.
“I did my best 60-minute power numbers ever, but that’s not much use if you’re not in the front. I really would have liked to test my legs and see if I could have followed Lotte,” said the Movistar rider.
Van Vleuten now looks ahead to Southern Limburg and the Ardennes, skipping Paris-Roubaix Femmes in favour of the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
