Tour de France Femmes: Lotte Kopecky goes solo to win stage 1

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Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) added to her superb palmares, claiming the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in Clermont-Ferrand with a powerful solo attack on the late climb on the stage.

The Belgian champion leapt away before the Côte de Durtol with 9.6km to go and never looked back.

With teammate and race favourite Demi Vollering disrupting the chase behind and the peloton in pieces, Kopecky sailed to the first maillot jaune of the race.

"It will be something very special and I really look forward to it," Kopecky said of wearing the yellow jersey on Monday.

"It was something that was on my mind already quite a long time," Kopecky said. "I was joking with my best friends, every day we texted each other saying '10 kilometres til yellow'.

"It's amazing that I can also just do it - this final climb I had the feeling I had something left and I just went. I thought probably someone would follow but nobody could follow. Once I was over the top I knew it was mostly downhill and thought if I could just keep my power they could not catch me back."

The two-time Tour of Flanders winner also added the points jersey and polka dot climber's jersey to her collection.

Lorena Wiebes won the sprint from the chasing group behind to make it an SD Worx 1-2 on the stage. Last year's points classification winner Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) was a close fourth.

"We had two strategies because we had Lorena - if she could get over the climb we would go for Lorena in the bunch sprint. But I also had my chance to go and they gave me this chance - I'm happy for the team SD Worx that I could finish it off.

Kopecky and Wiebes have together been part of an SD Worx 1-2 four times this season, and with Vollering another three. The dominance of the team has been incredible even for Kopecky.

"In the team, we are really laughing about it - we don't understand it ourselves so many races we are 1 and 2. This year we have a super strong and super good team together. It's super nice to race like this."

How it unfolded

The opening stage at the Tour de France Femmes, a 123.8km that started and finished in Clermont-Ferrand, skirted around the famed Puy de Dôme but did not venture up the ascent. 

It offered the peloton an undulating route into an intermediate sprint at Saint-Hippolyte and a category 3 ascent at Durtol before a nine kilometre descent and fast run-in to the finish.

The peloton lined up under warm temperatures in Clermont-Ferrand, 32°C, with many riders were wearing ice vests as they waited under the sun for the race to begin. Ahead of the stage, there were questions surrounding whether the opener would end in a bunch sprint or if the GC battle would kick off over the Côte de Durtol, denying the sprinters a chance at the first yellow jersey.

The peloton stayed largely together for the opening 25km, perhaps indicating some apprehension among the field ahead of the more challenging final 25km of the stage. Typhaine Laurance (Lifeplus Wahoo) made the first attack and was chased by Amandine Fouquenet (Arkea) but by 78.4km to go the race was back together for another 30km.

Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT) eventually broke the stalemate and created some daylight between herself and the field, slipping off the front with 45.4km to go. She quickly built a lead out to 50 seconds heading into the intermediate sprint in Saint-Hippolyte, but was caught before she could claim any points toward the green jersey.

A tangle of wheels forced India Grangier (Team Coop-Hitec) and Amber Pate (Jayco AlUla) off their bikes momentarily, but both riders were back up and in the field with 30km to the finish.

Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) led the peloton across the sprint line ahead of Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-Quickstep) but with a tough climb still to come the pace was too high for any more escapes.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) made the first move on the climb, purportedly to nab the polka dot jersey, but her solo attack with 9.6km to go was powerful and supported by her teammates nullifying the chase behind.

She then time trialed to the finish, winning by a significant 41 seconds. With the time bonuses, Kopecky leads Wiebes by 45 seconds with Kool in third at 47. Vos was the last rider to finish ahead of a small gap to Moolman-Pasio in the sprint, and sits in fourth at 51 seconds with the AG Insurance Soudal-Quickstep rider fifth at 53 seconds.

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