ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Charlotte Kool beat compatriot Lorena Wiebes to the finish line Tuesday to defend her yellow leader’s jersey in the second stage of the women’s Tour de France.
DSM-Firmenich PostNL’s Kool made it two wins from two in the eight-stage race by outpacing Olympic road silver medallist Marianne Vos before overtaking Wiebes just before the finish line in 1 hour, 32 minutes and 49 seconds. Vos finished third.
The first of Tuesday’s two stages took the riders 69.7 kilometers (43.3 miles) from Dordrecht to the nearby port city of Rotterdam through typical Dutch scenery, waterside dikes and World Heritage-listed windmills before finishing in central Rotterdam.
Kool was wearing the yellow leader’s jersey after winning the opening stage in The Hague on Monday. She now has a narrow 14-second lead over Finland’s Anniina Ahtosalo in the race’s overall standings. Wiebes is third with the same time as Ahtosalo, while defending champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands is part of a large group of riders within 20 seconds of Kool.
After recovering from Tuesday’s opening stage, they will face a 6.3-kilometre individual time trial through the streets of Rotterdam in the late afternoon.
Starting in the Netherlands, the race heads south to Belgium and then through eastern France to finish on 18 August at the top of the gruelling climb of the famous 21 hairpin bends of Alpe-d’Huez.
