The final day of racing at the Simac Ladies Tour saw the peloton take on a testing day in around Arnhem, with a plethora of short hills on the menu. Heading into the stage the GC battle was finely poised with Team DSM’s Lorena Wiebes just six seconds ahead of Cordon Ragot and a whole host of other riders within striking distance on the tricky parcours.

It was a steady start to the day with Charlotte Kool and Elise Uijen controlling the earlier proceedings but after around 20 kilometres the action started and a flurry of attacks caused the bunch to explode. Leah Kirchmann and Franziska Koch brought back several dangerous moves, with Wiebes herself following some of her closest competitors on the GC. Eventually a strong trio broke clear and things calmed down while the now reduced peloton featuring Kirchmann, Koch and Wiebes trailed by a gap that reached almost four minutes.

Eventually other teams started to help in the chase alongside the Team DSM duo and the gap slowly started to fall, with the attackers caught at around ten kilometres to go. A few more probing moves went clear but the team did well to bring them back before eventual stage winner Bredewold escaped alongside Gasparrini. With Kirchmann and Koch spent from all of their brilliant work Wiebes came to the front on the narrow roads with everyone else looking at her. However, with the two out front no danger to the GC and as a result they would take any possible bonus seconds away from the others, Wiebes didn’t pull through. The duo fought it out for the win while behind Wiebes did unleash her trademark sprint, powering to the line to take third place on the stage and secure the GC title.

It rounds off a brilliant week for Team DSM; ending the Simac Ladies Tour with the GC victory, three stage wins, two second places and one third place – a perfect send off for the retiring Leah Kirchmann.

Speaking after the stage a smiling Wiebes said: “Today was another hard stage. Other teams really put us under pressure but we had no stress during the race. We lost Elise and Charlotte early after their hard work, and Elise had a mechanical, but we still had Franzi and Leah at the front. We started chasing after the last hilly part and going back to the local laps. Leah did an amazing job. I think she rode really strongly and it’s nice to finish her career with us like the way we did. We kept Franzi out of the chase so she was more fresh for in the final. In the end, two riders got away but that was fine for us as we were focusing on GC. Anyway, it was also another good third place on the stage and I’m really proud to take the GC win after all of the amazing work the girls did this week.”

Team DSM coach Albert Timmer added: “We had two goals for today: keep the GC and hopefully win the stage. We knew it would not be easy and we were attacked by a lot of teams in the beginning of the race. At one point when the trio went away it was perfect for us and we played the game by not riding, putting the pressure on the other teams, to see who would panic and help chase. We were ready to give it up if necessary as we needed help. Other teams picked it up and they wanted to keep the podium spots they had. In the end Leah did a crazy amount of work with Franzi to keep things under control alongside the other teams. In the final the two girls attacked and stayed away, but the main goal was to keep the GC and that’s what we did. I think we can be proud and happy of what we’ve achieved all week as a group, both riders and staff.”