On paper, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) winning stage 1 of the Tour of Britain Women wasn’t a surprise on Wednesday. Once again, the fastest sprinter in women’s cycling prevailed. But the team had gone into the stage with multiple options and only decided to go all-in on a sprint relatively late – though that decision was sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“Once a strong group had gone clear and we had the right riders in there, we waited for quite a long time to see whether or not the stage could be decided from a breakaway. When it became clear that this wouldn’t be the case, we made the decision to keep the race together and bring Lorena to the finish in the best possible position," explained Christian Kos, the team’s sport director at the British stage race.
