Boels Ladies Tour: Van Vleuten wins stage 1

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Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) followed up her prologue win with a solo victory on the first road stage of the Boels Ladies Tour. Eugenia Bujak (BTC City Ljubljana) and Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) led home the peloton 12 seconds later to take the remaining stage podium spots.

Van Vleuten was 40 seconds ahead over the last climb but took a wrong turn on the descent and lost most of her lead. After getting back on course, the Dutchwoman nevertheless succeeded in holding off the peloton in Nijmegen and keeps the overall lead.

Starting and finishing in Nijmegen, the stage began with a short stretch along the Waal river to a 15.5 kilometre circuit around the towns of Beek and the aptly-named Berg en Dal that would be raced seven times before returning to Nijmegen for the finish. The circuit included a two-part climb consisting of the lower part of the Muur van Beek, known from the 2016 men's Giro d'Italia, followed by a short, narrow downhill and the steep ascent of the Oude Holleweg. Mountain points were awarded on every lap but the first, with bonus seconds and sprint points also on offer on laps two and five.

There were a number of short-lived breakaway attempts on the first kilometres and the first lap of the Berg en Dal circuit. After the first mountain sprint, Pauliena Rooijakkers (WaowDeals) attacked solo and eked out a 45-second lead before she was joined by Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans). The two were caught on the next ascent of the Oude Holleweg, becoming part of a strong group of nine riders that was caught by the peloton with 74 km left to race.

On the next lap, Rossella Ratto (Cylance) went off the front, followed by Amalie Dideriksen (Boels Dolmans). They worked well together, building an advantage of over a minute with 35 km to go. Dalia Muccioli (Valcar PBM) and Heidi Franz (USA National Team) tried to bridge to the front duo, but never got closer than 20 seconds before being caught by the peloton.

Dideriksen and Ratto were reeled in not long after, and the final ascent of the Oude Holleweg brought fireworks as both Van der Breggen and Van Vleuten attacked to break up the race. At the mountain sprint, these two and Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5) had a gap on the rest and continued on. But the trio did not cooperate well as van der Breggen, in particular, did not seem happy with the race situation, and what remained of the peloton came back.

After a short breather, Van Vleuten put in another acceleration and was away on her own. Undeterred by the prospect of a 20-kilometre solo, the world time trial champion took one second after another on a chase group that consisted of Van der Breggen, Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott), who understandably did not help with the chasing, Ellen van Dijk (Team Sunweb), and Longo Borghini.

When the four chasers were caught by a peloton of about 30 riders with 13 km to go, Van Vleuten held an advantage of 35 seconds. She went into the last ascent of the Muur van Beek 40 seconds ahead and defended this on the climb, throwing herself into the downhill less than six kilometres from the line. Disaster struck as Van Vleuten took the wrong way at a fork in the road, heading into roadworks instead of the race course.

Van Vleuten realised her mistake quickly, but by the time she was back on course, her advantage was down to only ten seconds. Far from being demotivated by this, van Vleuten fought on and reached the finish line twelve seconds ahead of the peloton to take a win she will not forget in a while.

Van Vleuten obviously keeps the orange leader's jersey; with bonus seconds for her stage win, she now holds a 29-second overall lead advantage over second-placed Bujak. Van Vleuten also leads the points and mountain classifications; the green and polka-dot jerseys will be worn by Bujak and Van der Breggen, respectively. Jeanne Korevaar (WaowDeals) took the lead in the U23 classification and will wear the white jersey on the 129-kilometre stage 2 around Gennep.

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