Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike) sprinted to victory on stage 1 at the Baloise Ladies Tour. The Dutch sprinter outpowered her compatriot Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech) and overall race leader Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) on the streets of Knokke-Heist.
Bäckstedt remains in the overall race lead by five seconds ahead of Kool and eight seconds ahead of Veenhoven as the race heads into stage 2 on Friday.
The first road stage at the Baloise Ladies Tour offered another pan-flat race from Oostende into Knokke-Heist. The 112km route included a sector of cobbles at approximately 40km in the first half of the race, then entered a two-lap finishing circuit.
The peloton raced through the first quarter of the stage largely intact with Bäckstedt wearing the leader’s jersey after her prologue victory the previous evening.
Anne Knijnenburg (VolkerWessels Cycling) late-race breakaway and held 18 seconds into the last 20km of the race. Just as she was caught, her teammate Bodine Vollering went on the attack, but it was short-lived, and she was reeled in with 8km to go.
AG Insurance-Soudal, Visma-Lease a Bike and Fenix-Premier Tech moved to the front to set up their sprinters for the final, but a crash in the peloton took down several riders inside the 2km to go mark.
Lidl-Trek’s team took control at the front but coming into the final straight away it was Veenhoven who proved fastest, taking the day’s victory.
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