The first stage of the Simac Ladies Tour, which started and finished in Gennep, started quietly. After eighty kilometres, the first lead group appeared. Three riders opened up a one-minute gap, but the peloton caught the trio soon after. In the inevitable bunch sprint, Henderson and Swinkels were alert, but in the end, the duo could not get close to the podium.

"The plan today was to go for the sprint”, race coach Carmen Small said. "Unfortunately, we were too far away in the final kilometres and couldn't go for the sprint. We are now concentrating on tomorrow's time trial. Hopefully, the riders can recover overnight and get another good result tomorrow.”

Then, the peloton will head to Belgium for a seven-kilometre time trial through the centre of Leuven. The riders of the black and yellow brigade are still high up in the general classification after the good results in Tuesday's prologue. Riejanne Markus will start the race against the clock in fourth place overall, eight seconds behind leader Charlotte Kool.