Brown finishes it off solo in Overijse
With the start in Lennik, finish in Overijse and no less than 20 climbs along the way, this year the women had a new and tough course to tackle. Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) went solo in the final and stayed in front of the Team Sunweb duo Lippert and Mackaij.
After the start of the 122km race at 10:45am in Lennik, we saw some attacks, but the classic early breakaway did not happen. The peloton kept a tight pace, also in the region around Beersel, where the first climbs were waiting with the Bruineput and Alsemberg. It was only in the last local lap that Lauren Stephens (Team Tibco - Silicon Valley Bank) managed to create a gap of more than 30 seconds.
However, Stephens was also unable to complete her effort successfully. With about 15km to go, Brown managed to close the gap and she also dropped Stephens. She convincingly rode up the Moskesstraat, while in the peloton Team Sunweb tried everything to close the gap with Brown.
Lippert and Mackaij managed to set up a team time trial for Team Sunweb in the final of the race. Despite the good cooperation in the back, Brown was able to expand her lead further. She took on 't Schavei one last time and rode solo to victory on the Brusselsesteenweg, before Lippert and Mackaij.
