Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) won stage 1 of the 2025 Tour of Britain Women, outsprinting Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) as they held off the chase group by a few seconds. Lorena Wiebes (SDWorx-ProTime) won the sprint for third place.
Le Court had attacked on the second classified climb of the day, Langburn's Bank, and was joined by Faulkner on the descent. The two riders worked together well and had an advantage of up to 30 seconds on a chase group of around 20 riders, where Movistar and FDJ-Suez did most of the work.
Entering the final kilometre along the Redcar seaside, it was clear that Le Court and Faulkner would sprint for victory. Le Court took the front with 300 metres to go, launching her sprint at the 150-metre mark and she kept Faulkner behind to take both the stage and the green leader's jersey.
Article continues belowDue to bonus seconds awarded at the finish and the day’s only intermediate sprint, Le Court leads the GC by five seconds on Faulkner and 14 seconds on Wiebes.
How it unfolded
Starting in Dalby Forest, the opening stage covered 81.5km, crossing the North York Moors before descending towards Redcar.
Rain during the first half of the stage discouraged attacks, and the peloton stayed together over Blakey Ridge where Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) was first at the top, taking maximum QOM points ahead of Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ).
Le Court then made her move on Langburn’s Bank, attacking early on the two-kilometre climb. Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) followed Le Court’s acceleration, and Faulkner jumped across the gap as well.
Le Court attacked again, dropping Henderson and Faulkner, and Faulkner left Henderson behind, about halfway up the climb. The Mauritian crossed the QOM line five seconds ahead of Faulkner, with what remained of the peloton at 27 seconds.
Faulkner joined Le Court on the descent, and behind them a chase group of 20 riders formed that was led by FDJ-Suez, later joined by Movistar. However, they didn’t make inroads on the gap to the front duo, who were 30 seconds ahead at the intermediate sprint in Newton-under-Roseberry.
Eight km from the finish, the gap was still 24 seconds, and as they reached the coastal road with 2.5km to go, Le Court and Faulkner could be confident they would sprint for the win.
Although the sprinters came closer in the end, Le Court beat Faulkner in the sprint to win by five seconds ahead of the chase group that was led home by Wiebes. In addition to the green leader’s jersey, Le Court also scooped up the combativity award and the lead in the points and QOM classifications.
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