Niewiadoma wins Women's Tour opener in Kettering

Kasia Niewiadoma (WM3 Pro Cycling) stamped her authority on the Women’s Tour with a storming solo victory in Kettering on stage 1. The rising star of Polish cycling was nursing an injury ahead of the race but showed no signs of being hindered as she took 1:46 out of her rivals.

Marianne Vos made it a 1-2 for the WM3 Pro Cycling team by winning the sprint behind, with Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans), who won in Kettering two years ago, taking third place.

"I'm so happy. It was incredible," Niewiadoma said. "The last weeks have been hard for me; I have a small injury in my knee so I wasn't really convinced about my shape but I felt so great today."

Niewiadoma broke a deadlock in the peloton with just under 50 kilometres to go. To begin with, the move seemed speculative at best, but a failure to react quickly enough behind gave the WM3 rider the advantage she needed.

The last two times the Women's Tour has visited Kettering, the race has ended in a bunch sprint, and the peloton behind may have been expecting more of the same. However, by the time Boels Dolmans got their act together and tried to shut it down, Niewiadoma had 3:30 as a buffer. That did begin to fall, but a confident Niewiadoma did not panic and had plenty of time to plan her celebration as she weaved through the technical finish in Kettering.

Niewiadoma was the only rider to break the clutches of the peloton on the opening 147km stage of the Women's Tour. Mercifully, the race escaped the deluge of rain that has covered the UK in recent days as they set off from Daventry.

Not for want of trying, a breakaway struggled to materialise in the opening kilometres as a quick pace kept the main group together. Orica-Scott's Georgia Baker was an early departure from the race. The Australian climbed off after 18 kilometres following an early crash. The team reported she had also been ill in the build-up to the race.

The main general classification contenders went up against each other on the first climb of the day, with Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Wiggle-High5) securing top points. She was up there again when the group took on the second ascent to ensure she was wearing the queen of the mountains jersey for stage 2.

It wasn't until the 100-kilometre mark on a relatively innocuous stretch of road that the bunch began to break up. Niewiadoma struck out, managing to do what nobody else had throughout the day, and was not seen again until the finish line.

Niewiadoma now holds a substantial lead of 1:46 over the rest of the bunch as the race heads into a testing two days in the hills. The Polish road race champion will have to hold off some serious challenges from her rivals, but she has given herself a serious head start on the pack.

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