For the riders with sprint ambitions, stage six was the last chance for success. With tomorrow's mountain stage and Sunday's time trial still to come, the peloton never let a three-person break get far away. A bunch sprint seemed inevitable, but that proved beyond Norsgaard's control. Despite her teammates' best efforts, fourth place proved the best possible for Vos.

"My teammates did everything they could”, Vos said. "I was in a good position from the last climb. The team did everything they could to catch the lead group. Unfortunately, one rider made it to the line. I had to leave a small gap for a while in the final stages because otherwise, I would have gone to the front too early. Anna (Henderson) did a perfect job. Unfortunately, I couldn't reward her with a podium finish. We wanted to sprint for the win. Unfortunately, it didn't work out today. We did what we could.”

Karlijn Swinkels also praised the team's work. "We were hoping to sprint for the win with Marianne today. We saw an opportunity and put everything on the line to win. Fourth place is not the result we wanted, but we can be proud of what we did today. We gave everything and tried to make the best of it. Unfortunately, that was not good enough for victory”, Swinkels said.