Tour de France Femmes stage 1: Live

Bonjour and welcome to the Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 1 of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes.

To read our analysis of today's opening stage on Cyclingnews, look no further than 

Tour de France Femmes 2022  - stage 1 preview

The first stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift  is 81.6km long,  running on the famous circuit on the Champs-Élysées. The neutralised start is at 13:30 and then there is a 5.3 kilometre neutralised section, prior to racing getting underway at 13:40.

Weather is dry and warm, temperatures out there according the official  race website are 28.8 Celsius. There's a bit of a breeze, but not too strong, just 11kmh.

After multiple expressions of delight and emotion at their opportunity to be taking part in the first edition of such a key event for cycling, the riders are moving towards the neutralised start. Two minutes to go.

The riders begin the neutralised section of stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes and after months of build-up, the race is, at long last, underway.

My colleague Kirsten Frattini has written this great interview with Marianne Vos about the Tour de France Femmes. Highly recommended. 

Marianne Vos: Tour de France is bigger than sports

Let's not forget, either, that Vos was the first winner of La Course back in 2014, held over a very similar course in central Paris.

And so it begins. The riders begin the 81.7 kilometre stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes. 

75 kilometres to go

Five kilometres into the race and no major movements yet.

Worth noting that during this stage there are two intermediate sprints on the fifth and eighth laps of the Champs-Élysées.

And there's also a mountains classification on offer on the ninth lap.

69 kilometres to go

And we have the first break of the day: a seven rider move is off the front.

The seven rider move, including Anais Morichon (Arkea-Samsic), has been extinguished by DSM who have Lorena Wiebes as one of the favourites for a potential bunch sprint.

65 kilometres to go

Almost as soon as the 7 rider move ends, there's another breakaway, this time a solo move by Laura Asencio (Ceratizit-WNT ProCycling)

Yet more moves are ebbing and flowing but nothing is managing to stick yet

62 kilometres to go

Another move finally opens up a small gap, with Emily Newsom (EF-Education-Tibco-SVB) and Micha Bredewold (Parkhotel Valkenburg) with a lead of 10 seconds.

60 kilometres to go

58 kilometres to go

And the gap has now opened to 20 seconds.

One of the first photos of the opening stage

52 kilometres to go

Emily Newsom (EF-Education-Tibco-SVB) and Micha Bredewold (Parkhotel Valkenburg) have a 40 second advantage on the peloton

It's getting hotter out there, reaching 31 degrees, according to the official website.

Jumbo-Visma and SD Worx have moved to the front of the bunch and have squeezed down the gap held by Emily Newsom (EF-Education-Tibco-SVB) and Micha Bredewold (Parkhotel Valkenburg) to a scant 12 seconds. 

And the gap has evaporated completely. Bunch all together and Jumbo-Visma are leading the string.

49 kilometres to go

47 kilometres to go

Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) takes the sprint ahead of Lorena Wiebes (DSM)

43 kilometres to go

Another solo break goes clear for Arkea-Samsic as Pauline Allin of France gains 20 seconds on the bunch.

38 kilometres to go

And the gap between Pauline Allin (Arkea-Samsic) and the bunch hovers at around the 22 second mark.

36 kilometres to go

And after a flurry of unsuccessful counter-attacks, Allin's gap has dropped to a scant 12 seconds.

32 kilometres to go

The second intermediate sprint is approaching fast and Allin's gap is dropping equally quickly. 

And here's another emblematic picture from today's stage.

Henrietta Christie (Human Powered Health) moves across to Allin at the front. But the peloton are barely 16 seconds behind the leading duo and the second intermediate sprint is fast approaching. 

27 kilometres to go

The two are reeled in .

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) takes the second  and last intermediate sprint.

A flurry of more attacks as we approach the Mountains classification 'summit', situated in the ninth lap.

Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT), Femke Markus (Parkhotel Valkenburg) and Anne Dorth Ysland (Uno-X ProCycling) move away just before the Mountains classification.

19 kilometres to go

Markus claims the points for the Mountains ranking.

Yet another break tries to go clear as Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo) scrapes up a lead of roughly 20 seconds.

14 kilometres to go

Verhulst pulls out a lead of 30 seconds as DSM control the bunch behind.

Crash at the back of the bunch. Alana Castrique (Cofidis) is one of those affected, also Cristina Majerus (SD Worx). 

11 kilometres to go

33 seconds for Verhulst in the lead.

Unconfirmed reports that Alana Castrique (Cofidis) has had to abandon following the crash with around 12 kilometres to go.

9 kilometres to go

Castrique's abandon is confirmed, while Verhulst stretches her lead to 43 seconds.

6.6 kilometres to go

Last lap. Trek-Segafredo, Jumbo-Visma head the chase after Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo). 33 seconds between the two.

Another crash. Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange-Jayco) is down as is Laura Subemich (Plantur-Pura), but both riders can get back on their bikes.

4 kilometres to go

Verhulst still has a lead of 13 seconds but the bunch is closing fast...

Jumbo-Visma and Trek-Segafredo, together with DSM are massing at the front of the bunch.

3 kilometres to go

And the break is down to just 10 seconds

Jumbo-Visma and Movistar move to the front now as Verhulst is caught.

2 kilometres to go

And a bunch sprint is pretty much inevitable.

Trek Segafredo Ellen Vian Dijk leads the bunch into the last kilometre.

DSM moves into action as well, while Vos still has two riders for Jumbo-Visma. Henderson leads out the sprint.

The sprint begins and Vos is leading one side of the road, Wiebes on the other.

Lorena Wiebes (DSM) wins stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes. And is the first leader of the race, too.

Wiebes came round the last corner a fair way back, and while Vos went from a long way out, Wiebes had time to get ahead of the 2014 winner of La Course. Wiebes thus ranks up 52 wins in her career and her 16th of the year.

Wiebes has finished ahead of Vos by around a wheel's length, with Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) in third. But while Wiebes will take the day's triumph,  the celebration of  stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes today means the biggest winner this Sunday is surely the sport of cycling in general.

And here's a photo of Wiebes taking the sprint on the Champs-Élysées.

Wiebes talks to the TV cameras: "the team did an amazing job and my thanks to them and all the people at headquarters, it was a really chaotic sprint, I expected that Marianne would do a long sprint. I was relaxed before the start and we started as a normal race, but it was a really nervous final." As for holding the first lead of the race, "I'm really happy with this and I think the whole team deserved it. We are ready for the next goals. It was really close but luckily I could accelerate and hold it to the finish line."

Wiebes 

Wiebes heads for the winner's podium and dons the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France Femmes

Wiebes will therefore lead the Tour de France Femmes on Monday's stage 2, a flattish 136 kilometre run from Meaux, just outside Paris, south eastwards towards the town of Provins. It looks set to end in a sprint, with only one fourth cat. climb early on, but there is a nasty drag up in the last kilometre which could shatter the peloton at least a little.

And here's Wiebes celebrating her stage win.

While Lorena Wiebes (DSM), first on the stage and second in one of the intermediate sprints, logically leads in the points competition, Femke Markus (Parkhotel Valkenburg) gains an early advantage in the mountains classification, with two points, one point ahead of Anna Dorthe Ysland (Uno-X-ProCycling). Maike van der Duin (LeCol-Wahoo), sixth in the stage, is now atop the Best Young Riders competition. Canyon-Sram rule the roost in the teams ranking and the most persistent breakaway of stage 1, Gladys Verhulst (LeCol-Wahoo) has won the award for the most combative rider.

The unofficial results show there were some splits in the Tour de France Femmes peloton. The first 74 riders came home in the same time as the stage winner Wiebes but then European Champion Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) led home the next group of 50 riders around 17 seconds down and the last rider across the line, Marta Alzini (Cofidis) was over 12 minutes back. One of Alzini's teammates, Alana Castrique, was also the first abandon of the race.

That there are splits on this stage on the Champs-Élysées is not as surprising as its resoundingly flat profile tends to suggest would be possible. Apart from the terrain there were at least a couple of crashes late on, as well.

And there are the full results from stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes

And a picture of Wiebes in yellow on the winner's podium, joined by a very young fan.

For a full report, more pictures and the complete results from today's  opening stage here on Cyclingnews, the link is this one here:

 Wiebes beats Vos to claim stage 1 win and yellow jersey at Tour de France Femmes

And more reports, reactions and analysis will be coming from our team on the ground in Paris later today.

That's it from the live coverage for now, but please check back in for more live coverage here on Cyclingnews of Monday's stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes. Meantime, let's not forget a certain men's bike race is on the point of making its appearance on the Champs-Élysées in a few hours' time. For live coverage of that event, check back on Cyclingnews soon.