Greig Leach

Both Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) had gotten into the early breakaway both in search of adding to the point totals in their respective jerseys. I'm guessing that the peloton let them go thinking both would come back to the peloton after they achieved their jersey goals. They forgot that it was Marianne Vos they let go. The escape group was about eight strong but with forty-two kilometers to go the pair of jerseys and Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) on a move off the front. Vos seemed to look back and encourage the others to keep going believing that they had a chance of staying away from the peloton. After all they had around five minutes advantage with just over forty k to go. The regular formula is that the peloton can pull back a minute every ten kilometers, so the math says they have a chance. The caveat is that formula applies to flat stages, and the end of this one was anything but flat.