Tour de France Femmes - Stage 1: Kool capitalises on Wiebes' defect and wins sprint opener in The Hague
Sebastian Lindner
· 12.08.2024
Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) crossed the finish line in The Hague with one hand over her mouth and a look of disbelief. 123 kilometres earlier, the 1st stage of the 3rd Tour de France Femmes had started in Rotterdam. At the end of the flat course in her home country, Kool was able to celebrate her second victory of the season. Nobody had really expected it. Because there was actually only one rider who could win. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx - Protime) came to the Tour with 18 wins this season and a lot of anger in her stomach after an unfortunate performance at the Olympics. The fact that she ended up neither on the podium nor in the top 10 was due to a close fight with Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility).
The bikes of the Dutchwoman and the Finn touched each other in the last 500 metres. Wiebes lost her rear derailleur in the process. Ahtosalo, on the other hand, got away without any problems and sprinted to second place ahead of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek). A second Finn, Lotta Henttala (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), finished fourth.
Kool: "Best day of my life"
"This is the best day of my life," cheered winner Kool in an interview. "It all comes together. The season hasn't been easy for me so far, but winning here makes me forget all that." The hectic final was in her favour. The very early sprinter's opening left her in doubt, but in the end she had a clear lead of more than two bike lengths over Ahtosalo and Balsamo.
After her victory, Kool starts the second day of the Tour with the overall leader's yellow jersey, which includes two stages. A short sprint stage of less than 70 kilometres in the morning will be followed by a good six kilometres of time trials. In addition to yellow, Kool also took green for the best points scorer. The best young rider is Ahtosalo. Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa - Fundacion Euskadi) secured the first mountain jersey with a short breakaway attempt on the way to the mountain classification.
The result of the 1st stage
- Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) 2:47:40
- Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility) +0:00
- Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
- Lotta Henttala (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) +0:00
- Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:00
- Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) +0:00
- Mylene de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT) +0:00
- Kimberly Le Court (AG Insurance - Soudal) +0:00
- Emilia Fahlin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +0:00
- Blanka Vas (SD Worx - Protime) +0:00
The overall ranking
- Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) 2:47:30
- Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility) +0:04
- Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) +0:06
- Lotta Henttala (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) +0:10
- Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:10
- Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) +0:10
- Mylene de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT) +0:10
- Kimberly Le Court (AG Insurance - Soudal) +0:10
- Emilia Fahlin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +0:10
- Blanka Vas (SD Worx - Protime) +0:10
How the 1st stage of the Tour de France Femmes went
After 14 agonisingly long neutralised kilometres through Rotterdam, which had already seen several crashes and defects, race director Marion Rousse opened the start of the 3rd Tour de France Femmes a little late. 154 riders set a fast pace early on. The wind held back by Dutch standards in otherwise bright sunshine.
After 19 kilometres, a trio tried to put tarmac metres between themselves and the peloton for the first time. Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka from the German team Canyon//SRAM Racing was also there, but the trio didn't get far. Only Tonetti opened up a larger gap 80 kilometres before the finish. Her lead over the peloton was just over a minute at one point.
Mountain classification at the tunnel
61 kilometres before the finish, the only mountain classification (4th category) of the day was taken - ironically at the end of a tunnel under the Meuse delta. Breakaway rider Tonetti secured two points there and then considered her task to be over, but was quickly caught up again. Her coup was favoured by a crash in the peloton earlier on a narrow bridge, which held up large parts of the peloton.
The intermediate sprint of the day was taken after 85 kilometres. While Wiebes and Kool held out, Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) collected the maximum possible 25 points. Nothing else happened until the final. The high basic pace prevented further attacks. The peloton went into the last three kilometres, which were almost straight ahead, as one.
The SD Worx - Protime and dsm-firmenich PostNL teams led the field into the final metres. Nevertheless, everything was quite chaotic. Wiebes in particular got into a scramble several times and had shoulder contact with more than just her rivals. In the duel with Ahtosalo, her rear derailleur also took a knock, which is why she was unable to intervene in the decision. Kool, on the other hand, seized the opportunity and opened her sprint early. In doing so, she surprised her rivals, who were unable to close the gap.
TOUR at the Tour de France Femmes
TOUR editor Sandra Schuberth will be there live at the start of this year's Tour de France Femmes before cycling back to Munich. Her bikepacking tour is being organised under the name Deutschland-Trail Gravel-Edition. If you want, you can accompany them for a while.
