Baloise Ladies Tour: Charlotte Kool wins stage 1 to take control of race lead

Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNL) was the fastest of a bunch sprint to win stage 1 at the Baloise Ladies Tour. The Dutch sprinter capitalised off a perfect lead from her teammates to take the win ahead of Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Kool started the day just two seconds behind overnight leader Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) in the general classification. She earned valuable time bonuses at the finish line and so moved into the overall race leader's jersey ahead of stage 2 in Olsene on Friday.

Bäckstedt lined up on stage 1 as the overall race leader, after winning the previous day's prologue, for a 127.2km of flat racing from Jabbeke to Knokke-Heist.

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The course included a 1.8km cobbled sector at Brieversweg and then two finishing circuits in Knokke-Heist.

Kate Seiler (Carbonbike Giordana by Gen Z) broke away from the peloton in the opening 10km and built a lead out to nearly a minute with 115km to go.

The peloton was briefly neutralised due to a level crossing, but the race resumed with Seiler pushing her lead out to just over a minute on the peloton at the midway point of the race.

Seiler was eventually caught with 55km remaining and while new attacks ensued, the peloton was intact as they raced into the final two circuits.

Julie De Wilde (Fenix-Deceuninck) made a late-race attack, but it was short-lived as teams with powerful sprinters Lidl-Trek, Visma-Lease a Bike, SD Worx-Protime, and Picnic PostNL lined up their lead-out trains in the closing kilometres.

Franziska Koch pulled the field into the final few hundred metres with Kool on her wheel, perfectly positioned to sprint for the stage 1 victory.

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