Racing in front of a home crowd, van Vleuten enjoyed an emotional moment when she crossed the finish line for the last time.

It brought the curtain down on a glittering career that included Olympic time trial gold and road race silver at Tokyo 2020, four world titles and multiple International Cycling Union Women’s World Tour crowns.

"I really enjoyed the last lap and took everything in," the 40-year-old told Dutch broadcaster NOS.

"It was very special with all those people here.

"It felt really good to have my last race here, in my training area.

"I would also like to thank everyone who took the time to come here today."

There was no fairytale finish for van Vleuten, a two-time winner of the Simac Ladies Tour as she ranked 23rd in the overall standings, 6min 23sec behind champion Lotte Kopecky of Belgium.

Kopecky finished in a winning time of 14hours 27min 50sec in the general classification, beating SD Worx teammate Lorena Wiebes of The Netherlands.

Wiebes had hoped to make it back-to-back Simac Ladies Tour victories but fell five seconds short of Kopecky despite winning the final stage.

A third-place finish on the last day was enough for Kopecky as Wiebes had to settle with second.

"It was a long day," said Wiebes in a report by Cycling News.

"I was away with the group early on, and my teammates did a super job, increasing the gap to the peloton again here on the finishing circuit in Arnhem and closing the gap to Kasia.

"I like it when it is a smaller group with fewer sprinters in it; that makes it a bit more relaxed for me.

"The team controlled the race well, so I didn’t have to worry about anything.

"I still felt good going into the sprint, and we had a great lead-out with Lotte, so I had to finish it off."