The Kemmelberg, 35 km from the finish, was again a key moment in Sunday's Ghent-Wevelgem women's race, won by Boels-Dolman's Jorian Dufour. On the cobbled uphill and then on the narrow, winding downhill.

When the first gap appeared on the descent of the Kemmelberg, the first nine riders were still close, and eight of them would join the winning move. Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo), Jelena Erik (Movistar Team), Silvia Polichini (Valcar Travel & Service), Lauren Stevens (Chibko-SVB), and Ekip Paul Ka's Emma Norsgaard and Elise Shabby. were behind them.

After Chaby, Liejeanne Marx (CCC-Liv), Team Sunweb's Florche McCaige (led by teammate Lorena Wiebes), Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM), and Arlenis Sierra (Astana Women's Team) were the rest of the peloton and widening the gap.

Meanwhile, Norsgaard, Polichini, and Chavy were unable to keep up with the pace and fell back, being passed by Polichini's teammate, Marta Cavalli.

As they crossed the summit and entered an asphalt but narrow descent, Stefan had almost caught up with the 10-man lead group, with Cavalli chasing hard behind. Eric and Marcus were not out of sight, but Stevens and Cavalli had attached themselves to the lead group just before a sharp turn, while Eric and Marcus were still chasing.

This corner proved to be the next turning point as Rian Lippert (Team Sunweb), running in 7th position, slipped and crashed on the wet track, creating a gap. Lippert got up unscathed, but his chain got stuck and he was unable to rejoin the race and catch up. Sierra crashed in the same spot as Lippert, and the Cuban champion was soon back on her bike, but for the peloton behind her, the already narrow road became even narrower.

The gap between the groups widened, and on the downhill descent, Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), Amy Peters, Jolien Dohore (Boels Dolmans), Parkhotel Valkenburg's Demi Foraring, Lisa Brennauer (Serratigit WNT) and Sarah Roy (Mitchelton Scott) were about 50 meters ahead of the next five racers. When Longo Borghini looked around and saw that her teammates Degnan and Ellen van Dijk had not joined the lead group, she stopped pacing and closed the gap more easily with Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal), Stephens and Cavalli.

Erik came off the descent another 50 meters back, but the 24-year-old Serbian had no chance to close the gap on her own. Markus and Norsgaard quickly caught up to her, but by that point the gap in front had widened to 10 seconds, and the three riders were eventually caught by the rest of the peloton, which included sprinters Vives and Barnes.

This set the stage for the remainder of the race, with the lead pack and the peloton effectively fighting a 30km team pursuit. Vives' Sunweb, Burns' Canyon-SRAM teammates, and CCC-Liv chased hard from the back and caught the lead pack in sight in the last kilometer, but the final margin of 8 seconds was too much for them.