Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) won her second stage in a row at the Tour de France Femmes, outpacing Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) to take victory on stage 2 in Rotterdam.
The yellow jersey came out of the slipstream of her great sprint rival in the last 100 metres of the flat 68km stage and came around to score another victory and extend her overall lead. Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished third.
Several crashes marked the stage. The first one, after only 2km, split the peloton in three, and, when things had come back together, Audrey De Keersmaeker (Lotto-Dstny) attacked. She held off the peloton for 30km before being caught with 9.8km to go, leaving the sprint teams to set up for the final.
With the time bonus for the stage victory, Kool extended her GC lead to 14 seconds on Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility) and Wiebes with Vos and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) in fourth and fifth at 16 seconds.
"We were in control the whole day, but we heard some crashes, so I hope everyone is okay," said Kool after the stage. "It was a hectic course, but I like it. It was quite a chaotic sprint. We were a bit far, but I tried to stay as calm as possible. I just launched my sprint, and it was enough.
"Dreams come true quite fast these days. First yesterday and today already winning in this jersey, it’s just really special. I did not expect this two weeks ago, but things can change fast."
How it unfolded
Starting in Dordrecht, the stage covered only 69.7km before finishing in Rotterdam where a 6.3km time trial will be held in the afternoon.
After only two kilometres on relatively wide roads, a crash occurred when the peloton was funnelled down a road that was narrowed by barriers.
Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) were among the riders that went down, and the peloton split in three as many more riders were held up by the crash and had to chase back.
When everything had come back together, Laura Tomasi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) launched the first attack but did not get away. With 40.5km to go, De Keersmaeker had more success, quickly getting a ten-second gap on the peloton.
The Belgian rider's advantage fluctuated between 10 and 31 seconds as she used narrower and windy roads to extend her gap while the peloton took back time on wide, straight roads. Eventually, though, De Keersmaeker was caught just inside the 10km mark, and the sprinters' trains got into position.
Visma-Lease a Bike, Ceratizit-WNT, Uno-X Mobility, DSM-Firmenich PostNL, SD Worx-Protime, and Lidl-Trek all lined up next to each other, but the last 4.5km with nine turns and several bridge crossings strung out the field, and SD Worx-Protime were in the driving seat coming onto the finishing straight.
Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) dropped her sprinter off with about 250 metres to go, and Wiebes sprinted down the right-hand barriers. Kool came up in her slipstream but was boxed in by Vos who tried to hold Wiebes' wheel.
When Vos couldn't follow Wiebes' pace anymore, a gap opened up that Kool went through, coming alongside Wiebes and beating her to the line to take her second stage victory in a row.
Results
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