Pre-race favorite Marianne Vos will miss the women's Tour of Flanders due to "health issues," her team has confirmed.

Vos was expected to start Sunday's race, but CCC-Liv announced that the 2013 champion is "not healthy enough to start." The team said her absence from the start line had nothing to do with Covid-19, but did not elaborate further on her condition.

With Vos sidelined, the team will be led by Ashley Moolman-Pasio and Sofia Bertizzolo, who finished fourth in last year's race.

Moolman-Pasio had a tough start to the second half of the season when she crashed during training at Strade Bianche and needed 60 stitches to treat the wound. When he returned to racing, he finished 6th overall at the Giro Rosa, 6th at La Flèche Wallonne, and 16th at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

In addition to Bertizolo and Mourmain-Pasio, six riders are registered: in addition to Bertizolo and Mourmain-Pasio, they are Lejeanne Marx, Jeanne Correval, Evi Cuypers, and Soraya Paladin, who was called up Saturday morning to replace Voss.

"There are narrow sections in between, where you have to sit up front and be alert," said coach Jeroen Brylevens. 'From Canaryberg, we will again follow the traditional final. The real final is expected to explode in Kruisberg. Hopefully we will be tactically smart in the fight."

With Ale BTC Ljubljana abandoning Marta Bastianelli's title defense, Vos is the second leading player not to make the starting line on Sunday. The team was forced to withdraw from Ghent-Wevelgem last week after a team member tested positive for Covid-19.

The team was then retested, but the results were not known until today, making it impossible for the team to reach Belgium before the start time.

The Astana women's team and Chevalmaire also withdrew from the race due to coronavirus concerns, while Ekip Polle Ka was forced to dissolve its team and withdraw from the race after its contract with the title sponsor fell through.