Tour of Flanders Women 2020

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Boels Dolmans dominated the 2020 edition of the women's Tour of Flanders, with Chantal van den Broek-Blaak leading home a team 1-2 in Oudenaarde after attacking on the climb of the Oude Kwaremont with just under 20 kilometres of the Belgian cobbled Classic to go. Dutch compatriot and teammate Amy Pieters led home a chase group of 16 riders more than a minute down, with Belgian road race champion Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal) taking third.

The Dutch squad might have expected stiffer competition from Michelton-Scott's Annemiek van Vleuten and Grace Brown, and from Trek-Segafredo's Elisa Longo Borghini, Ellen van Dijk and Lizzie Deignan. However, Van den Broek-Blaak revealed afterwards that road race world champion Anna van der Breggen – one of the pre-race favourites for Boels Dolmans – had offered to ride as a domestique de luxe for her teammates, and promptly set about making the race as hard as possible early on over the climbs of the Kanarieberg and Taaienberg.

It was Van der Breggen who chased down Van Vleuten following the Mitchelton-Scott rider's attack on the Kruisberg-Hotond, with Van der Breggen then refusing to work together with Van Vleuten, knowing the strength of the Boels Dolmans team behind them.

Sure enough, Van den Broek-Blaak's subsequent attack on the Oude Kwaremont proved to be the race-winning move, with Sarah Roy finishing as Mitchelton-Scott's best-place rider in fifth place as Van Vleuten faded to 15th after trying to ride for teammate Brown.

Longo Borghini was Trek-Segafredo's best finisher in eighth place, while Van Dijk lost more than three minutes to the chase group of favourites to finish 17th, and overall Women's WorldTour leader Lizzie Deignan was a non-finisher.