Tour de l'Ardeche: Thalita De Jong takes first leader's jersey with stage 1 victory
Karolina Perekitko second, Debora Silvestrie third from six-rider chase group

Thalita de Jong (Lotto Dstny Ladies) won the opening stage at the Tour de l'Ardeche, beating runner-up Karolina Perekitko (Winspace) by one second at the finish line in Beauchastel. Debora Silvestri (Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi) finished third on the day.
A 15-rider breakaway emerged early in the day's 88km race from Saint-Fortunat-sur-Eyrieux to Beauchastel, but the field regrouped at the 28km mark.
A new breakaway emerged over the category 1 climb: Col de la Mûre, which included De Jong, Perekitko and Silvestri, along with Valentina Cavallar and Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Monica Trinca Colonel (Bepink-Bongioanni) and Marion Bunel (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93).
The eight riders led the race with a 2:30 gap over a reduced chasing field of 19, and they pushed their lead out to 3:30 into the last climb and final descent into Beauchastel where De Jong took the stage victory.
De Jong now leads the overall classification by one second, heading into stage 2 on Wednesday.
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Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
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