After an early start in Lennik, the riders headed to Overijse, where they had to complete a three-lap local course. The race took off after seventy kilometres. The already reduced peloton was constantly shaken up by attacks back and forth on no less than 24 peaks. It went precisely according to the plan, race coach Carmen Small said.

"We knew we needed to stay patient until we could proceed to the local laps. We intended to stick with a few riders in a small group towards the end of the race”, Small explained. “It didn't quite go the way we had planned. We missed two riders in the front.”

“Karlijn was dropped early, and Fem had bad luck today. She was held up twice by a crash right in front of her. It took her a lot of energy to get back into the peloton. So Anna ended up alone too early”, the race coach continued. The last tens of kilometres of the race were ridden with a group of about twenty riders.

It rained attacks from all sides. Henderson looked strong and anticipated several times, but she could not make the crossover in the winning attack. “It was super difficult for Anna today to estimate which attack to parry. It takes a lot of energy to respond to attacks. We missed at least one rider in the first group today, so that is the learning point we will take to the next classics”, Small concluded.