Van der Breggen storms to Tour of Flanders victory

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Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) won the 2018 Tour of Flanders with a 27-kilometre solo after attacking in between the Kruisberg and Oude Kwaremont climbs. From a chase group of nine, Amy Pieters (Boels Dolmans) sprinted to second and becomes the new leader of the UCI Women's WorldTour. Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) came in third.

Starting and finishing in Oudenaarde, the peloton faced 150.9km on two large loops through the Flemish countryside, with five flat cobblestone sections and 11 climbs, three of which were also cobbled. It was dry at the start, but rain began a few kilometres into the race.

Despite a number of attempts, no break ever stayed away for long in the first part of the race. Only Natalie van Gogh (Parkhotel Valkenburg) held a gap of almost a minute for some time before being caught again. There were several crashes on the wet and often narrow roads, and the attrition of the climbs and cobbles reduced the size of the peloton, too, as riders couldn't keep up anymore.

The Muur van Geraardsbergen, 59km from the finish, brought the first real selection of the race with a group of six riders - Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton-Scott), Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans), Ellen van Dijk (Team Sunweb), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Lisa Brennauer (Wiggle High5), and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo Bigla) - in the lead at the top.

But as the six didn't push on, many riders could get back on, and soon there was a peloton of 30-40 riders again. The race settled down a bit as it passed the feed zone and riders took on fuel for the final. Boels Dolmans riders Amalie Dideriksen and Christine Majerus went to the front on the Kanarieberg, the fourth-to-last climb with 35km to go, and reduced the peloton to some 20 riders.

Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) attacked, followed by Dideriksen, but they never got far away and were caught in the streets of Ronse as the sun finally came out with 30km remaining. About 40 riders started the Kruisberg climb together, but the group shrunk to only 10 when Amy Pieters applied the pressure on the climb.

Van der Breggen took the opportunity to attack on the rolling roads after the Kruisberg. Van Dijk tried to jump on her wheel, but missed the moment, and the Olympic champion quickly opened up a gap. The chase group included three Boels Dolmans riders who had no interest in chasing their teammate, and the group was caught by a peloton just before the Oude Kwaremont.

At this point, Van der Breggen had increased her advantage to a whole minute. Moolman-Pasio attacked from the peloton on the cobbles of the Oude Kwaremont, splitting up the group. Van Vleuten went after Moolman-Pasio, but was covered by van der Breggen's teammate, world champion Chantal Blaak. A group of nine formed on the run-in to the Paterberg, the final climb of the day.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) split that group as only Moolman-Pasio, Pieters, and van Vleuten could follow the Pole's acceleration, though the other five were never far behind. Van der Breggen increased her advantage to 1:29 with five kilometres to go and could celebrate a stunning solo victory in Oudenaarde.

Behind Van der Breggen, the two chase groups merged on the final kilometre. Amy Pieters won the sprint for second place and also took the lead in the UCI Women's WorldTour classification, Annemiek van Vleuten finished in third place.

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