Lorena Wiebes (Team Netherlands) held off Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Sandrine Tas (Lotto-Intermarché) to win Simac Omloop der Kempen Ladies. It was a sixth race victory for Wiebes this season and a second win at the Kempen one-day race since 2019.
A valiant breakaway effort by Emmy Pordon (KDM-Pack Women CT) and Isabella Maria Escalera (O'Shea-Hutchinson) was wiped away in the final kilometre for the sprinters to reign supreme. However, Team Netherlands' ferocious pace to close down the break almost didn't succeed, as Wiebes had to make a bike swap in the final 10km due to a flat tyre.
A pair of Women's WorldTour squads, AG Insurance-Soudal and Fenix-Premier Tech, were among the 20 teams departed from De Plaatse in Veldhoven for the late-afternoon race.
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Five sections of cobbles featured on the 129.1km flat, serpentine route in North Brabant of the Netherlands. All five sectors were packed into a 15km track on the far western side of the large 46km loop, Bladelsedijk (2.4km) and Neterselseweg (2.6km) the longest to bookend a pass into Helleneind. A final shorter loop of 11.5km would be completed for the finish.
Femke Lenferink (WV Schijndel) was the first, and only, rider to attack in the opening 40km, with the peloton together for the first pass of cobbles, and a burst of heavy rain slowing the process.
Pordon soon escaped for a 25-second lead as the peloton began a second pass of the longer loop. Before the cobbles arrived a second time, Escalera made a connection with Pordon at the front of the race. They built a margin of 3:45 to the peloton with 50km to go.
With 21km to go, the duo continued to pound on the pedals in tandem but their lead had dropped to 1:40.
The final short circuit of 11.5km arrived and the Dutch-Spanish collaboration continued, though the sprinter's teams were now closing fast, just 65 seconds behind. Leading the charge was Team Netherlands riding for speedster Lorena Wiebes, but she suffered a flat tyre with 9km to go and had to restart the leadout after a bike change.
With 2.5km to go the leaders were in sight of the hard-charging peloton, and then passed before the final kilometre for the mass sprint to play out.
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