The women's Aardbeiencross began in 2012 in Hoogstraten, where Daphny van den Brand won the first edition and Sanne Cant later became the record holder with five victories. Since 2020 it has been held on the Kolonie estate in Merksplas, whose sandy strips and, in wet years, deep mud test riders on both kinds of ground. Only two riders have won there: Lucinda Brand took the first race on the new site and won again in 2021 and 2025, and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado won three in a row from 2022 to 2024. That first Merksplas podium was paid partly in local produce, with strawberries, dairy and tomatoes among the prizes. In 2025 Brand let an early attack go, then rode alone for about half the race to beat Aniek van Alphen by ten seconds, four days after winning in Niel. Beating either of those two riders here has proved one of the hardest jobs of the autumn.