How the race finished
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx Protime) took the overall honours in the Simac Ladies Tour for a second year in a row, ahead of Franziska Koch (dsm firmenich PostNL) and Canyon//SRAM Racing’s Zoe Bäckstedt.
Full results are available below.
How it happened
The Simac Ladies Tour opened with a 10.1km flat individual time trial in Gennep, in ther northern part of Limburg. Despite the start list featuring a number of very strong time trial specialists, including previous world champions Ellen van Dijk (Lidl Trek) and Chloé Dygert (Canyon//Sram Racing), and current european champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx Protime), it proved to be a day for the up-and-coming riders. Van Dijk had to settle for third place with Kopecky in fourth, both outperformed by twenty year old Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon//Sram Racing) who put in a very strong race to take the win, seven seconds ahead of 23 year of Lieke Nooijen (Visma | Lease a Bike).
Stage 2, the first and longest road stage of the race, started quietly in Coeverden. With 154.9km to race and only small time gaps established on the opening day, the peloton wasn’t keen to let a sizeable breakaway get any space. Eventually, with 48km to go, Ilse Pluimers (AG Insurance Soudal) chipped off solo, establishing a solid lead but ultimately being caught with 2km to go by a charging peloton. After a lead out by the world champion Lotte Kopecky, European Champion Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx Protime) won the sprint finish, just ahead of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl Trek) and Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
At the start of Stage 3 Zoe Bäckstedt was still in yellow, but due to illness and injury, all of her teammates had pulled out of the race, leaving her solo in defence. A windy day saw cross winds wreak havoc in the bunch, but Bäckstedt managed to be in the right place at the right time. Most of the other GC contenders were in the front split of around twenty riders alongside Bäckstedt, but Nooijen missed out and lost her second place. SD Worx Protime, having forced the split, had all their riders present, and pushed on to the line, setting up Wiebes for another win ahead of Balsamo. Kopecky put in a monster leadout, such that that the first five riders took a four second gap over the rest of the group including race leader Bäckstedt. Kopecky managed to finish third on the stage after her leadout, picking up valuable bonus seconds.
Stage 4 got off to a slow start, with riders tired after the cross winds of the previous day. Taniel Campbell (Liv AlUla Jayco) Julia Borgström (AG Insurance-Soudal) kicked things off, going clear together before being joined by others to form a more significant breakaway. The group of around twelve riders, bolstered by the presence of three AG Insurance-Soudal riders, two UAE Team ADQ riders and Franziska Koch (dsm firmenich PostNL), who was best placed on GC, worked well together to establish a lead that held at 1:45 with 25 km to go. With 10km to go, despite the work of SD Worx Protime on the front of the peloton behind, the breakaway still had over a minute up their sleeve, and stayed clear to contest the win. Having been protected all day, Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal) opened up her sprint early, and almost held on as the road curved to the finish line, but was pipped by Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx Protime) who took her first WWT win in 9 years. The stage saw a number of movements in the General Classification, as Franziska Koch took the lead by 5 seconds from Bäckstedt.
The penultimate day saw another slow start under grey skies, with not much action in the bunch. Audrey De Keersmaeker (Lotto Dstny Lades) slipped away solo, and quickly settled into a long time trial out front. At around 50 km to go a flurry of attacks came from the peloton, but with nothing sticking things settled again. De Keersmaeker was caught with 15km to go, after 70km out solo, and once again attacks came flying from the peloton, mostly from Visma | Lease a Bike. With every move being neutralised the riders prepared for another sprint finish, but a touch of wheels in the final kilometre saw a number of key riders go down, including Lotte Kopecky who lost skin on her left side, Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) and Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), who unfortunately had to abandon the race. Despite losing her key leadout rider in Kopecky, Wiebes once again took the win ahead of Balsamo, with Nienke Veenhoven (Visma | Lease a Bike) coming in for third.
Going into Stage 6 the General Classification remained close, with Franziska Koch (dsm firmenich PostNL) leading Zoe Backstedt (Canyon//SRAM Racing) by 5 seconds, with Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx Protime) a further 3 seconds down, and Ellen van Dijk (Lidl Trek), Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx Protime) and Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) all within twenty seconds of the race lead. Once again the peloton remained together through the opening part of the stage, with Jeanne Korevaar (Liv AlUla Jayco) picking up QOM points to add to her tally. Ilaria Sanguinetti (Lidl Trek) went up the road solo, while the peloton continued at a controlled pace. With Sanguinette brought back again, Korevaar continued to defend her Mountains jersey, with teammates helping her by picking up points as well. Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Livv AlUla Jayco) was next to go solo, with Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl Trek) going over the top, setting up a strong breakaway. Team dsm firmenich PostNL brought it back together, but the attacks continued to come.
With 38km to go Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco) slipped away, extending her lead out to around forty seconds as riders behind continued to attack each other rather than chase. SD Worx Protime eventually took responsibility, working to pull Smulders back, but she held strongly out front. A crash in the final kilometre reduced the chasing power in the bunch, but SD Worx Protime timed it perfectly – with Lorena Wiebes leading out teammate Lotte Kopecky to pass Smulders metres before the line, taking the win an with it, the ten bonus seconds to katapult her into the race win. Smulders, after a strong race, took fourth behind Wiebes and Martha Truyen (Fenix Deceuninck).
Franziska Koch (dsm firmenich PostNL) defended valiantly, sprinting to eighth and claiming second overall. Zoe Bäckstedt, who led in the opening stages, held on to third on the podium and best young rider.
Results
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