I don't know when exactly I tuned in, but the gap was about 6 1/2 minutes or so, and I thought it really needed to go down soon, but the peloton didn't bother, there were a few minor attacks, then looking at each other... for a long time. Then the gap went down, slowly, and I was like - uh, why don't they ever do something about it? Did they mess it up and it's too late already? Is it just that I know nothing about women's cycling and the calculations have to be made differently? (Probably true in part.)
Anyway, the peloton didn't bother for a long time. And the mechanics of this are not too different from the men's race. There are a few big favourites, in this case most of them on one team - "damn, if we want to have a chance for even a medal, we need to make them work". But the Dutch had four more or less leaders and weren't willing to sacrifice one of them until very late.
Kiesenhofer was really, really strong. But her win, like Carapaz's, wouldn't have been possible if there had been a joint and decided effort to bring her back, time gaps and everything not even mattering in that regard.