Kool finished a good bike length ahead of the 20-year-old Finnish rider Anniina (Uno-X Mobility) who will wear the best young rider’s white jersey on Tuesday’s stage 2. Lidl-Trek’s Alisa Balsamo finished third.
For Kool, the victory puts an end to a frustrating season of just one victory and 10 second places, almost all of them behind Wiebes. The win was also special for the 25-year-old Dutch rider because it came on home soil, as the first three stages of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift take place entirely in the Netherlands.
So Kool had many reasons to be delighted. “It’s unbelievable, it’s a dream coming true,” she told Eurosport after the stage. “It was not an easy season and this is what it was all about.”
She said that the sprint was “really hectic. But I like it. I was thinking [that] I like hectic and I like chaos and I went so early and I thought it’s too long and it hurt so bad. It was enough in the end. This is, I think, the best day of my life.”
She also took to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to post a photo of herself laughing and waving on the podium, with the caption: “That feeling when your childhood dream is coming true.”
Wiebes had been in excellent position as the bunch gathered speed but someone collided with her from behind. “Her entire derailleur was broken off so she couldn’t sprint anymore, it was over,” team director Danny Stam told NOS. “It’s frustrating to be left like that and unable to sprint because you can’t shift gears. I spoke to her, and she’s understandably frustrated and disappointed. But this can happen in such a hectic sprint in the Tour de France.”
In a statement released on the SD Worx website, Wiebes said, “I had ticked this stage in my calendar for a long time. I am therefore disappointed that I didn’t make it to sprint. I was sitting perfectly but a race incident happens in a sprint. There was an impact and I immediately felt my derailleur was broken. Then, unfortunately, it’s over. But tomorrow, a new opportunity presents itself.”
There was disappointment as well for 37-year-old Marianne Vos who finished fifth. “Fifth is not really satisfying but it’s a bunch sprint so anything can happen,” she told Cyclingnews. “I was a bit too far back in the final kilometre so I couldn’t sprint for the win. I still did everything I could but Kool turned out to be the fastest today.”
Perhaps the Visma–Lease a Bike leader was still feeling her efforts in the Paris Olympics road race where she picked up the silver medal behind American Kristen Faulkner (EF–Oatly–Cannondale). However, she will wear the Škoda Green Jersey because she won the stage’s intermediate sprint and remains one of the top contenders, with Kool and Wiebes, in that competition, which she won in 2022.
The stage, 123 km from Rotterdam to The Hague, was almost perfectly flat and was always going to end in a bunch sprint. Tuesday’s shorts stage 2, spanning 67.9 km from Dordrecht back to Rotterdam, is also flat and will almost certainly end in another mass sprint to the line. It will be followed, on the same day, by a 6.3 km time trial.
This version of the TdFF gradually increases the bumps in the road, ending on Sunday with two HC climbs, the Col du Glandon (19.9 km @ 7.2%) and a summit finish on the formidable Alpe d’Huez (14 km @ 7.9%).
- Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) 2:47’40”
2. Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility) same time
3. Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) “
4. Lotta Henttala (EF–Oatly–Cannondale) “
5. Marianne Vos (Visma–Lease a Bike) “
6. Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) “
7. Mylene de Zoete (CERATIZIT-WNT) “
8. Kim Le Court (AG Insurance–Soudal) “
9. Emilia Fahlin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) “
10. Blanka Vas (SD Worx–Protime) “
