EF Education-TIBCO-SVB win Tour des Pyrénées team time trial

Emily Newsom pulled on the leader’s yellow jersey as her EF Education-TIBCO-SVB squad won the team time trial to open the four-stage, three-day CIC Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées.

Human Powered Health rode to second place in the 27.4km TTT from Artiguelouve to Lacq, covering the course 56 seconds behind EF Education, to put two US-based teams on the podium. BePink was third, 1:31 back.

Among the 17 teams taking part in the inaugural edition of the stage race, the pair of Women’s WorldTour squads set the hierarchy for the next round of competition, with Stage 1b taking place Friday afternoon  on a 75.93km hilly course around Pau.

Riding with Newsom to comprise the top six in the early GC standings for the first road stage were Krista Doebel-Hickok, Clara Honsinger, Sara Poidevin, Zoe Bäckstedt and Emma Langley. Bäckstedt took the first best young rider jersey.

Katie Clouse will lead the Human Powered Health squad on the second stage in seventh place overall, followed by three teammates who crossed the TTT finish together  - Nina Buijsman, Eri Yonamine and Kaia Schmid. Mieke Kröger and Evy Kuijpers had dropped off the pace in the race against the clock and ride the second stage 1:35 back.

Because of big time gaps, which stretched out to 5:54 for Canyon-SRAM, organisers revised the GC to separate the teams by increments of five seconds. This gave Newsom and her teammates a five-second lead over four riders of Human Powered Health, and 10 seconds over four riders of BePink. The final team to cross the TTT together, Canyon-SRAM, would start stage 1b 1:20 back, its four riders with this time being Ricarda Bauernfeind, Agua Marina Espinola, Valantine Nzayisenga, and Olivia Shililfa. Ten other riders from various teams had slower times posted.

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