Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) confirmed her status as the best sprinter in the women's peloton by sprinting to victory on the opening stage at RideLondon Classique in Colchester ahead of Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek).
After the break of the day with Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) and Lea Lin Teutenberg (Ceratizit-WNT) had been caught with 16.5km to go, Alice Towers (Canyon-SRAM) and Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek) went on a late attack, but they were reeled in again 6.9km from the line.
In the final, the sprinters' teams fought for position, and the SD Worx-Protime lead-out train with Barbara Guarischi and Lotte Kopecky took over in the last 500 metres, dropping off Wiebes at the 150-metre sign to win by several bike lengths.
Wiebes is also the first overall leader.
“I had to finish off this teamwork; the girls were chasing all day and controlling the breakaway. It was a good situation for us, three and later two girls in front. We kept the gap controllable, and Femke and Christine did really well. So we had to finish it off today. We can be really happy with this, the race was always perfect for us, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow,” said Wiebes.
How it unfolded
At 159.2km, the stage from Saffron Walden to Colchester almost reached the maximum length for Women’s WorldTour races. To make them more valuable in what is mainly a sprinters’ race, time bonifications are awarded on the QOMs on the first two stages, not the intermediate sprints.
Koerner had specifically targeted these three QOMs, picking up all three and taking nine bonus seconds in the process as well as the QOM jersey. Meanwhile, her breakaway companion Teutenberg took six bonus seconds and instead went for, and won, the two intermediate sprints.
April Tacey (Team Coop-Repsol) chased the two escapees on her own for some 20km but eventually dropped back to the peloton when she realised she could not bridge across.
100km from the finish, Koerner and Teutenberg were 2:50 minutes ahead, with SD Worx-Protime controlling the gap in the peloton.
On the third QOM sprint on Sandy Hill in Wormingford, Wiebes took the last bonus second as a group of seven riders forged a small gap over the top, consisting of Wiebes, Kopecky, Paternoster, Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM), Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), and Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Kopecky and Paternoster were eager to keep the group going, but they were quickly brought back by the peloton. All this action had reduced the breakaway’s advantage to 49 seconds, but when things settled down again, they increased their gap again to just over two minutes with 37.5km to go.
From there on, the peloton took up the chase for real, and eventually, Teutenberg and Koerner were caught. This was the signal for Towers to attack with 15km to go, and Hanson bridged the 30-metre gap to the former British National Champion 12.3km from the finish.
They had a 15-second advantage at the ten-kilometre mark, but SD Worx-Protime and DSM-Firmenich PostNL were chasing behind and always had the two riders in sight, finally reeling them in with 6.9km to go.
DSM-Firmenich PostNL, Uno-X Mobility, and Canyon-SRAM fought for position at the front of the peloton in the run-in to Colchester, with SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek holding back at first. Lidl-Trek came to the fore with 2.7km to go before DSM-Firmenich PostNL took the pole position again.
With Maria Giulia Confalonieri on her wheel, Uno-X Mobility’s Amalie Dideriksen was first through the two roundabouts on the penultimate kilometre. After the flamme rouge, SD Worx-Protime came through on the right side, and Confalonieri jumped on their train as Dideriksen swung off.
Georgi then led out Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), who had to start her sprint with more than 300 metres to go to follow an acceleration by Kopecky. Paternoster and Copponi were still in the slipstreams of Wiebes and Kool, respectively, and they passed Kool to take second and third place. Meanwhile, Confalonieri also came past Kool in the final metres to finish fourth.
Results
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