Charlotte Kool Wins Tour de France Femmes Opener

Dutch rider Charlotte Kool of Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL clinched the opening stage of Tour de France Femmes, a 123-km ride from Rotterdam to The Hague in the Netherlands, to take the first yellow jersey of this year's edition.

Uno-X Mobility's Anniina Ahtosalo finished second ahead of Elisa Balsamo of Lidl-Trek, while Marianne Vos took the green jersey after winning the intermediate sprint at Groeneweg.

""Oh, it's unbelievable like it's a dream coming true. It was not an easy season but yes this is where it is all about and I want to thank so many people like my trainer who always kept believing in me and all my people around me, close around me, this is unbelievable," Kool said.

Several riders were snagged by a mass crash in the peloton with 69 km to go, although none of them suffered severe injuries.

Stage two will be a 69.7-km ride from Dordrecht to Rotterdam.

In what was expected to be a three‑way battle between the Dutch trio of Kool, Marianne Vos and Lorena Wiebes, Kool easily proved the fastest, taking both Vos, of Visma‑Lease a bike, and SD Worx Protime’s Wiebes by surprise to claim the first yellow jersey of this year’s race.

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In a disorganized sprint, in which a mechanical issue put Wiebes on the back foot, Kool came across the line ahead of Uno-X Mobility’s Anniina Ahtosalo and Elisa Balsamo of Lidl-Trek.

On what seemed a relatively benign course, there were incidents almost immediately when a crash in the neutral zone led to the British rider Natalie Grinczer falling and then abandoning, after fighting for survival for much of the stage. A worse fate befell the Tashkent City Women’s team, who had a torrid first day and lost four of their seven riders. But there were other big names missing from the start line.