Annemiek van Vleuten had hoped that she would add to her 2011 and 2021 victories in her farewell Tour of Flanders but a crash ended the World Champion's chances of leaving a final history making mark on the race.
Van Vleuten had come into the Belgian race with the form to compete for victory and had she achieved it would have been the first woman ever to have won the Tour of Flanders three times. However her last chance of taking that record before retiring at the end of the year slipped through her fingers with a slip of her wheel at 48km to go that put her on the back foot at a crucial stage of the 20th edition of the 158km race.
