THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch cyclist Charlotte Kool won a bunch sprint on home soil on Monday in the first stage of the Tour de France women.
Kool, of the DSM-Firmenich PostNL team, will start Tuesday’s second stage in the yellow leader’s jersey after completing the 123-kilometer (76-mile) stage in two hours, 47 minutes and 40 seconds.
“It’s very special,” she told Dutch broadcaster NOS. “This is the day I’ve been waiting for.”
Anniina Ahtosalo of Finland was second and Elisa Balsamo of Italy finished third with the same time as Kool.
Last year’s race winner Demi Vollering of the SD Worx team finished 35th, three places ahead of Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner. Both riders also recorded the same time as Kool.
Vollering’s teammate Lorena Wiebes had been one of the favourites to win a sprint finish, but her bike chain came loose and she retired from contention.
The stage took the riders over flat countryside between the port city of Rotterdam and a finish line by the North Sea beach in a southern suburb of The Hague amid warm summer temperatures. Thousands of spectators lined the streets of the two cities to watch.
The eight-stage race crosses Belgium and then heads south through eastern France to finish on August 18 on the gruelling climb of the famous 21 hairpin bends of Alpe-d’Huez.
Two stages will be contested on Tuesday, one of just under 70 kilometres from Dordrecht to Rotterdam, followed by a 6.3-kilometre individual time trial through the port city.
