OPENINGThe 23rd women's Tour of Flanders ran 164.1 km out-and-back from Oudenaarde over the same Flemish bergs as the men, with a tailwind forecast for the finale. Lotte Kopecky, the three-time champion, headlined on home roads; Demi Vollering returned to the Ronde for FDJ United-SUEZ for the first time as a rival rather than Kopecky's team-mate, and Marlen Reusser arrived in form after winning Dwars door Vlaanderen mid-week. The opening seventy mostly flat kilometres stayed together before the hill zone began at the Wolvenberg.
UNFOLDSThe edition was defined as much by crashes as by climbs. Cofidis lost Victoire Berteau to a broken radius in a crash with just over 80 km to go, and the decisive blow to the start list came on the nervous approach to the Koppenberg with just over 40 km remaining, where a mass pile-up took down both Reusser and AG Insurance-Soudal's Kim Le Court-Pienaar — Reusser with a fractured lumbar vertebra, Le Court with a wrist fracture, neither able to continue. Lorena Wiebes, caught in two separate crashes, also abandoned. The favourites' group thinned through the Koppenberg, Steenbeekdries, Taaienberg and Kruisberg into the closing two climbs.
DECIDEDOn the final Oude Kwaremont, with roughly 18 km to go, Vollering launched a full-gas attack from the bottom of the climb and immediately opened a gap on what was left of the lead group. Nobody could match the acceleration; the advantage held over the top and grew on the Paterberg, where she stretched her lead toward half a minute with around 12 km to race.
FINALEBehind, Puck Pieterse briefly distanced Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on the Paterberg, but the Frenchwoman fought back to her on the run-in and the pair worked together to stay clear of the chase. Vollering soloed into Oudenaarde for her first Ronde; in the sprint for second, Ferrand-Prévot — runner-up here in 2025 too — came past Pieterse in the final 500 m to take the place. Kopecky led home the chase group at 1:04 for fourth, ahead of Bäckstedt and a UAE Team ADQ trio.