The 84 kilometre stage along the coast of Zeeland and West Flanders with the finish in Knokke-Heist was the first of two stages on today’s programme in the four-day stage race. The stage had a nervous start with the peloton battling the wind in particular.

The Team Jumbo-Visma riders mixed in with the front of the peloton just as they did during the first stage. Van den Bos managed to take advantage of this in the intermediate sprint and sprinted to third place. Attempts to escape were quickly nipped in the bud and the peloton prepared for a bunch sprint. Henderson and Van den Bos were able to get involved in the battle for the stage win thanks to a strong sprint train. Both riders had to acknowledge their superiority to winner Charlotte Kool and others. Henderson took the points jersey and remains third in the general classification.

“It was a fast race with many attacks again”, Van den Bos looked back on the first stage of the day. “As a team we were able to go on the attack. In the end, no breakaway really succeeded in getting away. In the last lap we strongly rode ‘en groupe’. We stayed together in the hectic final and that almost resulted in a perfect lead out. The last few days we have been improving this and it is coming out better and better. Tomorrow we have another chance.”

Anna Henderson looks forward to tomorrow's stage. "It was fast and hectic in the start. The team did a really good job today. The final was really hectic and dangerous, but we trusted eachother and stayed together as a team. We made good learning points today and hopefully we will get a perfect lead out tomorrow!"

Tonight’s stage is the second of today’s stages: a short time trial of 11.4 kilometres.

Only a few hours after the finish of the first stage, the riders swapped their road bikes for their time trial bikes. The short 11.4 kilometre time trial, which took place in Knokke-Heist, was won by the German Lisa Klein. Henderson missed the podium by a hair, just like in the morning stage. She finished thirteen seconds behind Klein in fourth place. The British rider kept the points jersey and remained third in the general classification.