Energiewacht Tour: D'hoore wins stage 1 in Westerwolde

Jolien D'hoore (Wiggle Honda) claimed the first stage of the Energiewacht Tour in a sprint finish ahead of Barbara Guarischi and Trixi Worrack (both Velocio-SRAM).

Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) finished fifth, and retained her overall lead in the race.

"The last corner was 150 metres from the finish, and I came into the last corner in sixth or seventh position or something," D’hoore said. "So yeah, I thought ‘my sprint is over! This is too late!’ But then a gap opened up on the right side and I thought ‘I’m going to give it a go, and I’m going to try if it’s possible,’ and yeah, I won."

On a calm, sunny day with the wind that usually characterises the Energiewacht Tour absent, all the teams were predicting a bunch sprint, though two breakaway riders nearly rewrote the script.

Just 14 kilometres into the race, Winanda Spoor (Jan van Arckel) attacked, taking Marijn de Vries (ParkHotel Valakenburg) with her, and with the bunch hesitant to chase, they stayed away through the run-in from Wedde to Ter Apel, and into the first of four 13.9km laps.

They pulled out a lead of two minutes, and as the sprint teams began to pick up the pace, fought hard through the second and third laps, and crossed the line into the last fighting furiously, while the gap dropped.

Eventually they were caught three kilometers from the end, with Velocio-SRAM on the front. However, despite their riders Barbara Guarischi and Trixi Worrack finishing second and third, it was the Belgian National Champion, Jolien D'hoore who took the win, adding to Wiggle Honda's spectacular 2015, less than a week after they won the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) finished fifth, enough to keep her yellow jersey, but with the Team Time Trial tomorrow, followed by a road race in the afternoon, there's likely to be a shake-up of the General Classification, and all eyes will be on three-time TTT World Champions Velocio-SRAM, to see if the 2015 team still has their magic.

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