Tour of Flanders 2022 LIVE - Women's race as Annemiek van Vleuten headlines stellar field at Ronde van Vlaanderen

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Van Vleuten goes first but Kopecky comes over her and the Belgian champion comes through to comfortably take the victory in the driekleur. Van de Broek Blaak completes the podium. "The perfectly executed team plan," says Marty McDonald. "Fantastic" is the only word of Dutch I can translate from Kopecky's post-race interview, but that just about sums it up, I think. Popular victory in those parts, I suspect.

Top Ten

1 Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) 4:11:21
2 Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar Team) ,,
3 Chantal Van Den Broek-Blaak (Team SD Worx) +00:02
4 Arlenis Sierra (Movistar Team) +00:40
5 Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx) ,,
6 Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) ,,
7 Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) ,,
8 Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) ,,
9 Brodie Chapman (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) +00:42
10 Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) +01:10

Lotte Kopecky in the perfect position and poised.

With Van den Broek Blaak turning a big gear, towards her own finishline someway ahead of the real one, the gap is growing. It’s now over thirty seconds and we surely have our podium. Can Van Vleuten do anything to beat Kopecky? The Belgian has a much faster sprint but anything can happen, and it’s all about what she has left in her legs.

Reusser has done all she can, and fallen away, but Kopecky still has Van Den Broek Blaak there doing all the work for her. Dani Rowe thinks we’re heading for for a two-up sprint between Kopecky and Van Vleuten. Twenty seconds back is Reusser, Brodie Chapman and Kasia Niewiadoma.

They’re hitting the steepest section of this climb and it’s all coming back together. Van Vleuten is finally on the front but she hasn’t got the gap she had last year as they turn onto the tarmac. Kopecky has been right with her all the way and her team-mate Reusser is still there to work for her, before another SD Worx rider, Chantal van den Broek Blaak joins the party.. Dani Rowe commentating suggests Van Vleuten might be better off sitting on and letting the SD Worx riders carry them, to allow the best chance for her own Cuban team-mate to make contact.

Onto a long straight carriageway, it’s Reusser and Chapman out on their own. The Van Vleuten group has them in their sights, but they’re a fair distance behind, so it might not be as encouraging as it normally should be. Vos is the biggest name to have fallen out of contention. 1km until the 360m long, 12.9% gradient Paterberg.

The cobbles are looking slippery, as Brodie Chapman takes to the front, and immediately does damage. Kasia Niewiadoma seems to be struggling a bit. Did she do too much work as this move was forming? This is going to be a long 2km of pave, with gradients up to 11% that the stones will only make steeper.

Back in the peloton, Van Vleuten takes off, with Kopecky immediately locking onto her wheel.

As Marlen Reusser joins the leaders, twenty seconds is the gap to the peloton. The Swiss champion has Christine Majerus to work for her, and the Luxembourg rider will turn herself inside out to get this group to the line. She can’t do it all on her own, so will need allies. If it doesn’t work out, they have options behind. The spots of rain we're starting to see won't help matters much. As they're about to arrive onto the famous Oude Kwaremont, I may take this opportunity to open a bottle of the same name, brought back from Belgium last weekend.

The SD Worx riders are refusing to work with Van Vleuten to pull this group back, but are more than willing to use their numbers to break her down gradually, by forcing her to chase. How Reusser has the legs to attack this hard, after all the work she’s done on the front so far, is hard to fathom. She must be in great form. In the peloton, with Henderson in the break, Marianne Vos can afford to sit back and surf wheels. Elisa Balsamo is still there as well.

Arlenis Sierra (Movistar Team)
Christine Majerus (Team SD Worx)
Anna Henderson (Team Jumbo-Visma )
Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing)
Brodie Chapman (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope)
Marit Raaijmakers (Human Powered Health)
Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ)
Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling)
Camilla Alessio (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling)
Olivia Baril (Valcar - Travel & Service)
Maike van der Duin (Le Col - Wahoo)

As they hit they Kruisberg with a small, but signifcant lead, it's all or nothing for Niewiadoma, surely?

AVV’s Cuban team-mate probably doesn’t want to drop her leader, but her accidental clip off the front certainly takes the pressure off the Dutch great, as a new select move emerges. Anna Henderson (Jumbo Visma) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram) are the bigger names there. Niewiadoma's presence might mean no-one else in the group will ride, as no-one wants to take her to the line. Majeurus is there as well, though, and she does seem keen. The Kruisberg, a relatively easy climb, with the right amount of length for Van Vleuten is up next.

Maike van der Duin stomps on the pedals on this latest cobbled climb. The front group can barely be called that, and their lead is just twenty seconds. Vollering is gasping for breath but she’s the one making it very hard a hundred metres or so back in the bunch. They'll catch Van der Duin very shortly. Three climbs left.

The aggression by the strongest riders on the Koppenberg was enough to snap a few links off the chain, with a pair of Movistar riders, as well as Vollering, Kopecky, Reusser and Chantal van den Broek Blaak of SD Worx rising to the top. An easing brings them back into contact with the reduced peloton. About 40 riders left in it now. The sections of pave and hellingen are bang, bang bang from hereon, so that group is only going to diminish further.

The SD Worx riders are looking good, with Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser and Lotte Kopecky hitting those rough cobbles hard. Annemiek van Vleuten over the crest of the climb, with the peloton now all strung out. Elisa Balsamo is doing very well to keep herself up there. The breakaway's lead is back under one minute.

With the Koppenberg just a kilometre away, the business end of the race is still to come, but this lead is not to be sniffed at. The peloton seem to see the race riding away from them, and Lorena Wiebes hits the front to bring the break back within breathing distance. Raaijmakers chooses to take the centre of the road, while the rest of the group try to find as much smoothness as possible in the gutters.

With the two North Americans’ lead tumbling three riders, Camilla Alession (Ceratizit-WNT), Maike van der Duin (Le Col - Wahoo) and Marit Raaijmakers (Human Powered Health) made the jump off the peloton and soon linked up to form a quintet. A bit of a lull in the peloton allows the lead to increase. A storm is coming.

We’re almost 100km in (well, the riders are) and the race is very slowly, but very visibly, beginning to heat up.

The European champion, Ellen Van Dijk, takes it upon herself to accelerate over the top of this testing tarmaced climb. With a number of riders on her wheel, the peloton is all lined out and the two riders up the road see their lead fall below a minute for the first time. Lucinda Brand takes over from her Trek-Segafredo team-mate. We're about 15km from the Koppenberg, when the race will be well and truly on.

A 1km, 6.8%, tarmac climb. Spratty is back in the peloton, and on the front of it, sharing the work with Jumbo Visma, Movistar, and SD Worx. Team DSM look to have relieved Lorena Wiebes of her protection, which means they’re not expecting the race to come down to a sprint.

The BikeExchange Jayco rider is looking good on the pedals, and is well on her way up towards the lead pair. Spratt has had a lean couple of years, after several very successful ones, and recently had surgery, but is looking in fine form today. This far out she’s probably not expecting much from this move, but it’s a good opportunity to give herself a workout at the head of affairs.

Clara Honsinger and Olivia Baril, in two different pink kits, have taken the initiative. Meanwhile with the peloton gradually accelerating before the Molenberg, Lotte Popelier and Alena Ivanchenko are brought back. Just four riders up the road, now.

As the peloton squeezes onto the narrow lane of the Molenberg, Lucina Brand is putting down a hard tempo, surfing the smoother crown in the centre of the road.

It’s Swiss champion Marlen Reusser and Christine Majeurus in the Luxembourg stripes taking turns to drive, with team-mate Kopecky always in second wheel. Kasia Niewiadoma is an ever-present at the front, as the peloton hold the break at about 2 minutes 30. Next up is the Molenberg: 500m long, average grade of 6.5%. The pace is high, and this is the time to be at the front.

An attack out of the bunch by Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon Sram) (also Drive to Survive) inspired two more riders, Alena Ivanchenko (UAE Team ADQ) and Gulnaz Khatuntseva (Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad) to make moves of their own. They soon caught the second group on the road, and are adding impetus to it. The sextet are 2.37 behind the leaders.

The lead group is on to their first real test of the day. If there’s a single climb that’s not quite as terrifying as it sounds, it’s this one. It’s not without challenges, as it averages 7.9%, but without cobbles, they should really just roll over it. No point anyone pushing themselves too hard at this point.

A slightly longer Women’s Ronde this year. At 159km in length, it’s nudging towards the maximum allowable length of a women’s race of 170km. This year’s course contains two fewer hellingen (hills) than last year, but what it lacks in quantity, we promise it will make up in quality. The reason is that this year’s edition sees the first appearance of the fearson Koppenberg. It might be only 600m long, but in that short distance it rises up a whopping 77m, with sections as steep as 22%. And yes, it’s cobbled. My legs are screaming simply thinking about it. The Koppenberg comes with 45km remaining in the race.

Bernie Eisel - Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx)
Ilenia Lazzaro - Lotte Kopecky
Manon Lloyd - Lotte Kopecky
Robbie McEwan - Marianne Vos (Jumbo Visma)
Jacky Durand - Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar)

Some consensus among the Eurosport experts, with one name, that of the Belgian national champion, standing head and shoulders above the rest. Lotte Kopecky has been in blistering form so far this season, and no surprise that three of our pundits should pick her. She doesn’t make it a clean sweep, however, though the two other names offered are hardly unknowns. Can Vos or Van Vleuten do it for the Dutch in Oudenaarde?

WE JOIN THE RACE WITH TWO GROUPS

…Up the road. Group 1 has around two minutes lead on the peloton, while Group 2 has around forty seconds. Group 1 consists of:

Maria Martins (Le Col-Wahoo)
Olivia Baril (Valcar-Travel & Service)
Clara Honsinger (EF Education-Tibco SVB)
Sofie van Rooijen (Parkhotel Valkenburg)

In Group 2 we have:

Katrijn De Clercq (Lotto Soudal)
Naomi De Roeck (Bingoal Casino-Chevalmeire-Van Eyck Sport)
Lotte Popelier (Bingoal Casino-Chevalmeire-Van Eyck Sport)

Makayla Macpherson (Human Powered Health) was in Group 2, but could not hang on, and has been reabsorbed by the bunch.

With 110km to go. We’re about 35 minutes from the first cobbled climbs.

Before I begin making pithy observations of what promises to be an enthralling Women’s Ronde, a personal word to Richard Moore, who very sadly died last week. Richard was one of the very first people I met in cycling media, and the first to actually pay me to do anything. He was then directly responsible for my getting what would turn out to be my first full-time gig in this game, vouching for me, because he believed I was good enough to do it. His endorsement was nothing short of life-changing. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I would not be doing this today if it had not been for his support.

Richard had a lust for life, and was the most enormous fun to be around. I was lucky enough to enjoy quite a few evenings in his entertaining company over the years. Moreover his enthusiasm for this most beautiful of sports was infectious. It was impossible to listen to The Cycling Podcast without the urge to watch a race, and to write about it. You knew and enjoyed more because of him.

Through The Cycling Podcast Feminin, which he co-hosted with Eurosport’s own Orla Chennaoui, as well as in his writing, Richard was a great advocate for women’s cycling. He elevated voices without crowding them out. He should have been in Oudenaarde today. The race will feel his absence, but I hope the riders, many of whom will have known him, will give it more because of him.

As well as her colleague, Richard was a very close friend of Orla, for whom this has been the hardest of weeks. Her strength through such tragedy has been a wonder and an inspiration to witness. Before we go racing, please watch Orla’s tribute to one of the great sports journalists of our time, from the start of this morning’s The Breakaway. No-one can say it better.

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) will be joined by fellow previous winners Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Team SD Worx), Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ), Marianne Vos and Coryn Labecki (both Jumbo-Visma), Elisa Longo Borghini and Ellen van Dijk (both Trek-Segafredo).

Also taking to the start are Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering (both Team SD Worx), Katarzyna Niewuadoma (Canyon-Sram), Lizzie Banks (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), Grace Brown and Cecilie Ludwig (both FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange-Jayco), Lorena Wiebes and Pfeiffer Georgi (both Team DSM), Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT), Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling) and the Dwars door Vlaanderen winner, Italian youngster Chiara Consonni (Valcar-Travel & Service).

The women’s race starts and finishes in Oudenaard and includes 11 hills and six cobbled sectors crammed into 158.6km with the climax featuring the same Oude Kwaremont-Paterberg combo as the men, ahead of the flat 13.3km run to the line.

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