The Women's Tour: Marta Bastianelli wins stage 1

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Marta Bastianelli (Alé BTC Ljubljana) has won stage 1 of the 2021 Women's Tour. The Italian veteran was first across the line in an uphill bunch sprint in Banbury, beating Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo) and Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) to take the stage and the first leader's jersey.

"It was a long race, but we were at least lucky from the weather point of view that it didn't rain. My teammates stayed close to me, then at the last kilometre there was a fall that split the group, I was able to get up to the front, I took a good position and I was able to win the sprint," Bastianelli said in a team press release.

"We are living a good moment, now we will see what will happen in the next days. As there are only four of us in the race we don't have great ambitions for the general classification, also because I won't be able to compete in the time trial. We will try to be protagonists and maybe try to win another stage."

Bastianelli now leads the overall classification heading into stage 2, a 102km race in Walsall, by four seconds ahead of both Hosking and Nina Kessler (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank), who picked up bonus seconds by winning the day's two intermediate sprints.

How it unfolded

Starting in Bicester, the stage went through Oxfordshire for 147.7 kilometres to finish in Banbury after one-and-a-half laps of a finishing circuit. The stage included two intermediate sprints and three mountain sprints along the way. Despite some attacks, the peloton stayed together for a long time, and Nina Kessler (Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank) beat Australian champion Sarah Roy (Team BikeExchange) to the first intermediate sprint after 40.5km.

Anna Christian (Drops-Le Col s/b Tempur) and Kirstie van Haaften (Parkhotel Valkenburg) got away from the peloton shortly afterwards, but their lead was never more than 11 seconds, and they were quickly reeled in again.

As the route became hillier, Janneke Ensing (Team BikeExchange) went on the attack. Holding a lead of up to 35 seconds, Ensing won the mountain sprint on Iron Down Hill, with Canadian champion Alison Jackson (Liv Racing) and Demi Vollering leading the peloton over the top and catching up with the Dutchwoman.

Having reached the finishing circuit, Vollering and Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) initiated a small front group that was quickly brought back. Next to attack were Chiara Consonni (Valcar-Travel & Service) and Femke Markus (Parkhotel Valkenburg). At the Sibford Ferris mountain sprint, they had a 12-second advantage on the peloton led by Chabbey but were caught soon after.

After several unsuccessful attacks, it was Christian who got away again just before the first passage of the finish line. Briefly holding a 20-second gap, the Manxwoman was reeled in before the second intermediate sprint, won by Kessler ahead of Jackson and Roy.

The pace was high on the second ascent of Sibford Ferris, the final classified climb of the day, and a group of five riders jumped clear just after the mountain sprint: Chabbey, Juliette Labous (Team DSM), the Team SD Worx duo of Vollering and Amy Pieters, and Soraya Paladin (Liv Racing) had eked out a 15-second gap at the five-kilometre mark.

However, the sprinters’ teams came to the fore in the final, reducing the gap to four seconds one kilometre later and catching the front group with three kilometres to go. With a final attack thwarted, everyone was getting ready for the mass sprint when a crash in a roundabout with 1.2 kilometres to go brought down several riders, including Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM), Consonni, Liane Lippert (Team DSM), Jackson, and Ingvild Gåskjenn (Team Coop-Hitec Products). Bastianelli came through unscathed and had the upper hand in the sprint to win the stage.