Emakumeen Bira: D'hoore wins stage 1

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Jolien D'hoore (Boels-Dolmans) won stage 1 of the Emakumeen Bira. The relatively flat stage came down to a bunch sprint. The Belgian sprinter was fastest and beat Sofia Bertizzolo (Team Virtu Cycling) and Gracie Elvin (Mitchelton-Scott) to the line.

D’hoore broke her collarbone in mid-March and missed most of the Spring Classics. She is now in the white leader's jersey ahead of Thursday's stage 2, two seconds ahead of Bertizzolo and four seconds ahead of Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott).

"I had some bad luck in the beginning of the season, breaking my collarbone," D’hoore said after the finish. "I couldn't race as much as I would like, and I didn't win until now. My season wasn't great so far, but I'm happy to be here. It's my first time racing Bira, and my first victory of the year. The rest of the days will be about having fun, I will try to enjoy the climbs, but it is already a good race for us."

The opening stage was the flattest of the four-day race, and the only one expected to finish in a sprint. Starting and finishing in Iurreta, the riders covered 101 kilometres which included two category-three climbs, two intermediate points sprints as well as two intermediate sprints for bonus seconds. Since the race does not include a time trial this year, these bonus seconds may become crucial in the overall classification.

On the first 13 kilometres, there were intermediate sprints, one for points, one for time bonuses, contested by the whole peloton. Emilie Moberg (Team Virtu Cycling) won the points sprint ahead of Tanja Erath (Canyon-SRAM) while Spratt took three bonus seconds. Shortly afterwards, Anna Plichta (Trek-Segafredo) went on a solo breakaway. She was given a long rein by the peloton, and her advantage increased to two minutes before Boels-Dolmans started to reel in Plichta.

The first classified climb of the day spelled the end of Plichta's breakaway. She made it over the top but was reabsorbed by the peloton just after. This meant that the peloton was again together to fight for bonus seconds and sprint points. Spratt took another three bonus seconds, and Erath won the second points sprint ahead of Moberg.

Trek-Segafredo kept up the attacks, sending Tayler Wiles up the road on the second climb. When Wiles was brought back, her teammate Elisa Longo Borghini countered and was accompanied by Spratt. The two crested the top of the climb, 23km from the finish, with a gap to the peloton and pressed on, eking out an advantage of more than 30 seconds on the chasing peloton led by Boels-Dolmans.

The breakaway was over with 14km to go, immediately drawing a counterattack by Jelena Eric (Alé Cipollini). The Serbian champion was never ahead by more than 15 seconds and was brought back with 9km to go. A final move by Katia Ragusa (BePink) was not enough to pre-empt a mass sprint either, and on the short finishing straight, D'hoore opened her sprint from the front and led the race home.

In addition to the general classification, D'hoore also leads the points ranking. Since runner-up Bertizzolo will wear the pink U23 jersey, third-placed Elvin will wear the orange points jersey on stage 2. Longo Borghini takes the mountain jersey, the blue intermediate sprint jersey is on the shoulders of Erath, and Ane Santesteban (WNT-Rotor) will wear the green jersey for the best-placed Basque rider.

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