Silke Smulders (Ribe-Allura-Jayco) came within a hair's breadth of the overall win after a 39km solo breakaway on stage 6 of the Simac Ladies Tour, but in a dramatic finale, world champion and final winner Lotte Kopetsky (SD Walks Pro Time) caught up to her.

In the end, Smolders finished the day in fourth place, and ultimately seventh, 23 seconds behind Kopecky.

“I'm really proud of my effort and my team. I'm really proud of my effort and my team. I'm really proud of my effort and I think I was very strong. I'm really happy because I almost made it,” he said after the finish.

Smolders started the final sixth stage in seventh place overall, 21 seconds behind overnight leader Franziska Koch (DSM-Firmenig-Post NL). She attacked on the third of seven finishing laps, at 8.1 km, but like most riders who go solo at the front of a race, Smolders was not expecting to be alone.

“I was thinking, ‘Please, someone join me,’ or 'What did I start? I was like, 'Just run as fast as you can to the finish and see where you end up,'” she explained.

Smulders joined Lotto Soudal in 2021 and moved to Liv Racing the following year. The team merged with the GreenEdge women's team in 2024 to become Liv Aroura Jayco, which finished 21st in the Vuelta Femenina, 15th in the Vuelta a Burgos, 2nd in the Vuelta a Andalucia (winning the opening stage), and 13th in the Giro d'Italia women, 21st in the Tour de France women, 16th in the Classique Lorient Agglomeration, and 25th in the Tour de Romandie, and was consistent throughout the season.

She brought the confidence gained from these results to the Simac Ladies Tour, finishing fifth in the time trial on stage 1. On the final day, she placed fifth in the stage 1 time trial.

“For a long time I had a 30 or 40 second gap, but when I came out of the last corner I thought I could make it. But when I started I didn't think I'd come this far."

”It was a good start, but I didn't think I'd make it.

Although he narrowly missed out on the stage win, the Combat Award and accompanying red jersey meant that Smolder was on the podium to celebrate his QOM class win with teammate Jeanne Correval, who had been wearing the polka dot jersey since stage 2.

“Once we won the QOM jersey, it became our goal to keep it, the QOM jersey is an award for the whole team and we rode really aggressively. Of course, we wanted Silke to win today, but she was so close. We are all very proud of her,” said Kolevar.