Drama for Wiebes in first Tour de France Femmes stage, Kool gets the flowers in Kijkduin

Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) won the first Tour de France Femmes 2024 stage in Kijkduin, The Hague. She was the fastest in the announced bunch sprint by the Dutch coast. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) faced a mechanical problem in the final straight and could not sprint.

Dutch sports fans are in for a treat this summer. On Sunday, many people watched the closing ceremony and the last Dutch gold medals, but on Monday, there were even more people on the streets at the Grand Départ of the Tour de France Femmes in the Netherlands.

From Rotterdam, the peloton—with all the top Dutch riders—left a little after noon for a long neutralization through the city center of Maasstad. With all the street structures and the necessary road narrowings, it was occasionally dangerous here, leading to the first crash. That included Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Thalita de Jong (Lotto-Dstny), but they could continue.

After the neutralized section of fourteen kilometers, the peloton departed for real, after which the first attacks quickly followed. As often happens in the women's peloton, an early breakaway did not get a chance, as many riders set their sights on the first polka dot jersey. This was not awarded on a climb but at the exit of the Maas Delta tunnel. You have to do something if you start in the Netherlands.

The Uzbek team immediately loses several riders

There is always some stress in the first Tour stage, so the pace automatically increases. This proved to be too much for some women of the Uzbek Tashkent team: several riders of that team dropped out in the opening phase, with Ekaterina Knebeleva quickly realizing the uselessness of this mission and being the first lady to drop out. Teammates Asal Rizaeva and Mohinabonu Elmurodova followed moments later.

Seventy kilometers from the end, the peloton was suddenly startled on a bridge by a big crash, which included Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez), Fem van Empel (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek). Everyone was able to get back on their feet. Classification woman Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) then also suffered a flat tire, leaving her suddenly more than a minute behind the front guard in the chaos. It was a freaky situation that the German-American team couldn't use.

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She returned just before the Maas Delta Tunnel, where the breakaway rider Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa) took the points and polka dot jersey in front of several Dutch riders. So, the mission was accomplished for Tonetti, who then dropped back into the peloton and started to get ready for the next point: the intermediate sprint. There, Marianne Vos took the win, making her green jersey ambitions clear.

The ladies then headed for The Hague, where the nervousness remained relatively long. Even Elisa Balsamo remained remarkably calm during a mechanical failure in the preliminary final, knowing she felt already hot enough in the Dutch heat.

At ten kilometers from the end, the pace kicked up anyway, with even Demi Vollering not shying away from the work. She led her SD Worx-Protime teammates into the final kilometers, so Wiebes seemed to have everything pretty well under control. Mischa Bredewold also made a solid contribution there.

Other teams forced their way to the front with two kilometers to go, causing the peloton to use the entire road width. Just before the last kilometer, the lead-outs pushed the pace some more, with dsm-firmenich PostNL and SD Worx-Protime as prominent teams.

Wiebes' train took off seven hundred meters from the finish, but the leading lady suffered a technical failure and could not compete. At first glance, it seemed to be a chain or gear problem. Kool took advantage of this and snatched the victory flowers with a strong sprint ahead of Finland's Ahtosalo and Balsamo, who finished at a considerable distance. Vos was fifth, and Wiebes did not finish in the top ten.

Results stage 1 Tour de France Femmes 2024

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