Charlotte Kool wins stage one of the Tour de France Femmes 2024(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool is the first leader at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
Marianne Vos before the start of stage 1(Image credit: Getty Images)
Defending champion Demi Vollering ahead of the opening stage.(Image credit: Getty Images)
Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka (Canyon/-SRAM Racing) and Gaia Masetti (AG Insurance - Soudal) on the offensive on stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka (Canyon/-SRAM Racing) on the attack.(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lidl-Trek sign-on at the Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
The EF-Oatly-Cannondale riders wave to the Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
Gaia Realini at the Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
2023 Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool couldn't believe she won the stage (Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool enjoyes her success at the Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool pulled on the first yellow jersey at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool struck first at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
Here comes Charlotte Kool in the 2024 Tour de France Femmes opening sprint(Image credit: Getty Images)
Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi) took the first mountains jersey at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) was piloted perfectly in the final kilometre but appeared to drop her chain after contact with Ahtosalo, as her teammate Barbara Guarischi started the final leadout.
When Guarischi looked around, it was Kool who came out of her slipstream to take the lead and hold off the challenge from Ahtosalo, Balsamo, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Lotta Henttala (EF-Oatly-Cannondale).
“It’s unbelievable, it’s a dream coming true. It was not an easy season, but this is what it was all about," Kool said after her first Tour stage victory.
"I want to thank so many people, my coach who always kept believing in me, all my people around me, this is unbelievable.
“It was a really hectic final, but I like that. I went so early and thought, ‘oh, it’s too long’, and it hurt so bad, but it was enough in the end.
"I think this is the best day of my life. Everything comes together, and that’s really special,” Kool continued, also taking the yellow jersey in her home country."
How it unfolded
After the sign-in and neutral start in the Rotterdam city centre, the peloton faced a 14km neutral zone to the real start that doubled as a sightseeing tour of the city.
A first crash happened in the neutral zone, and Natalie Grinczer (Roland) was one of the riders involved in her comeback race after crashing out of the Vuelta Femenina in May. Grinczer struggled at the back of the peloton for most of the stage and eventually had to abandon, as did four riders of the Tashkent City Women team.
Laboral Kutxa were the most active team early in the stage, initiating the first breakaway that also included riders from Canyon-SRAM and AG Insurance-Soudal, though they were caught after only five kilometres.
The Basque team again sent a rider off the front with 80 km to go and Cristina Tonetti who quickly gained a 40-second lead.
When Giorgia Vettorello (Roland) jumped from the peloton to chase Tonetti down, she was shadowed by Yurani Blanco who didn’t take turns, protecting her teammate’s position at the front.
Vettorello and Blanco were soon caught again, and on the Calandbrug, a crash close to the front of the peloton took down about a dozen riders including Olympic time trial champion Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) and Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) whose teammate Gaia Realini suffered a mechanical just after the bridge.
Tonetti kept going and won the only mountain sprint of the day as she climbed out of the brand-new Maasdeltatunnel, taking the polka-dot jersey that she will wear until at least stage 4 as there are no mountain points on offer on Tuesday’s stages 2 and 3.
Her objective accomplished, Tonetti dropped back to the peloton, and the crashed riders eventually made it back too.
There were no attacks for the remainder of the stage but the pace was kept high. Vos won the intermediate sprint ahead of Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck) while Wiebes, Kool, Balsamo and others saved themselves for the final sprint.
Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), and Balsamo suffered misfortune with crashes or mechanicals on the run-in to The Hague, but they all made their way back to the peloton.
The sprinters’ teams lined up at the front in the final 15km, and even the 2023 Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), took turns in her team’s lead-out train for Wiebes.
Élise Chabbey, Alice Towers (Canyon-SRAM), Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health), and Loes Adegeest (FDJ-Suez) crashed in the last three kilometres.
Up front, SD Worx-Protime were in control as the race passed the flamme rouge. But in the chaos of the final five hundred metres, Wiebes suffered a serious mechanical problem and was unable to pedal after another rider rode into her rear derailleur. Wiebes was unable to sprint and could only watch on as her rivals surged ahead of her.
Kool came from behind and surged past Wiebes’s lead out Barbara Guarischi to win with a good margin ahead of the four closest riders behind her. She also took the first yellow jersey and the green jersey of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes. Stage runner-up Ahtosalo took the best young rider’s white jersey.
They will wear the jerseys during Tuesday’s 67.9km morning stage from Dordrecht to Rotterdam.
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.
