Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won stage 1 of the Simac Ladies Tour by beating Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx) in a photo-finish sprint in Gennep.
A break of three riders was reeled in on the second ascent of the day's only categorised climb with 27.5 km to go. Femke de Vries (GT Krush RebelLease) had been part of that break and launched a solo move as the race entered the finishing circuit but was caught 9 km from the line.
Quinty Ton (Liv Racing TeqFind) and Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) tried a final attack in the last five kilometres but were caught before the flamme rouge. In a chaotic sprint, Balsamo came from behind to pass Wiebes in the last metres and take the victory.
"I'm so excited, I can't believe it. My teammates were unbelievable, and I just want to say thank you to them," said Balsamo after her comeback victory, having fractured her jaw in May at the RideLondon Classique.
"It was a really hard season for me, coming back from a bad crash, and so to win again is just unbelievable. It was an amazing leadout, especially Ilaria [Sanguineti] did an awesome job, and then we were so close. I am just extremely happy," Balsamo continued.
With the bonus seconds for the stage win, Balsamo moves up to second overall, two seconds behind third-placed Charlotte Kool (Team DSM-Firmenich). Wiebes is third in GC at three seconds.
How it unfolded
The 139.1-kilometre stage consisted of two laps of a large loop plus one lap of a finishing circuit of 16.3 km. The large loop included a hilly section through the Mookerheide with the day's only 'mountain' sprint.
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Halfway through the first lap, Alice Towers (Canyon-SRAM), Quinty Ton (Liv Racing TeqFind), and Femke Gerritse (Parkhotel Valkenburg) went away and built a 40-second advantage. Gerritse took maximum points on the Mookerheide climb, but the group was caught soon after.
Amalie Lutro (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Margaux Vigié (Lifeplus Wahoo), and De Vries then attacked early on the second lap. They were up to 1:29 minutes ahead of the peloton which saw a big crash, though most riders were able to finish the race.
With prologue winner Kool's Team DSM-Firmenich controlling the race, the breakaway was brought back before the second 'mountain' sprint where Lieke Nooijen (Parkhotel Valkenburg) took the points from the peloton and was rewarded with the polka-dot jersey that she will wear until Saturday as there are no classified climbs on the stage 2 ITT or stage 3 through the pan-flat polders of Flevoland.
Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) tried to get away on the short climb of Klein-Amerika that followed, but Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma), Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM-Firmenich), and Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) quickly closed the gap.
Just before crossing the finish line for the finishing lap, De Vries attacked again and had an advantage of up to 10 seconds, but as the sprinters' teams cranked up the pace in the peloton, she was caught again.
Ton went just before the five-kilometre mark with Christina Schweinberger on her wheel, and the Austrian took over the lead, pulling hard with Ton on her wheel. Although they were 7 seconds ahead with 3 km to go, the duo was reeled in 1500 metres from the finish.
On the final kilometre, Demi Vollering, Barbara Guarischi, and Kopecky led out Wiebes who was ahead of yellow jersey Kool, but Sanguineti went on the left side of Wiebes to launch Balsamo onto the last 100 metres where the Italian came past from behind to win the stage.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
