There is no such thing as an easy opening day of the Tour de France Femmes, not given how much is at stake, but the chirpy demeanour of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney in the Canyon-SRAM post-race interview suggests that it was just about as close to one for the former winner as could possibly be expected.
It's not that there wasn't any tension or chaos through the 138km stage to Lausanne, but just that the team managed to stay out of it as it delivered a solid start in the battle for overall victory.
"The stage started off like every single classic Tour de France stage, being very hectic and nervous but then it all settled down because the roads were nice, nothing was happening, and I was actually surprised with that because usually it's just stressful," said Niewiadoma-Phinney.
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"So I think everyone was basically just waiting for the final, and then the last 50k's were full on, but it was a really good day for us. No bad luck. Everyone rode really great, committed in the front, so I think we can only take positives, and the legs are good."
It may not have been one of the big ticket GC stages but the overall battle certainly got underway, with the uphill finish splitting the peloton. The 2023 winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) managed to get a small advantage on key rivals when she finished third from among the leading group of ten, and therefore got a four second time bonus in the stage won by Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime).
With the time bonuses factored in, Vollering is now sitting six seconds behind sprinter Wiebes on the overall and two seconds behind runner-up Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) and, both of those top two riders are expected to drift in the mountains. Niewiadoma-Phinney – who came seventh on the stage – is a further four seconds back from Vollering and ten second off Wiebes, in a group of seven that included defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and also Marlen Reusser (Movistar), who fought back after a crash.
There were a considerable number of falls through the stage, particularly at the back of the field in the earlier parts of the day of racing, but Niewiadoma-Phinney managed to stay away from that part of the action as she rode the stage largely nestled among her teammates.
"Once you ride together as a team and you're committed to one set goal, then it feels like you avoid the mess and you can just focus on your own result, and that's definitely super helpful," said Niewiadoma-Phinney. "So I felt like together we all just like created the less stressful situation for ourselves."
The racing continues with another stage in Switzerland on Sunday, though this one leans toward a bunch sprint, as while there are climbs they are earlier in the day, so it as close to a flat run in that the sprinters will get at this year's Tour de France Femmes.
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