Kirsten Wild (Wiggle-High5) won the opening stage of the 2018 Women's Tour de Yorkshire, beating Amalie Dideriksen (Boels-Dolmans) and Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) to the line in a bunch sprint in Doncaster.
The Dutchwoman was the heavy favourite, having triumphed on this very same finish in 2016 when the race was a one-day event, and duly delivered with a powerful seated sprint.
With a time bonus of 10 seconds for her victory, she pulls on the first blue leader's jersey in the history of the race, this being its first running as a two-day affair
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"I'm really happy with a finish like this. When I heard it was the same finish as two years ago I was very excited," Wild said in her post-race flash interview. "It's really cool to win, and after such hard work from the team it makes it even more cool to win."
The opening stage from Beverley to Doncaster was always likely to culminate in a bunch sprint, with just one categorised climb on the 132.5km route. The Côte de Baggaby Hill came after 40km and after getting into an early break, 17-year-old Georgi Pfeiffer (Jadan-Weldtite Vive le Velo) hung on to claim the queen of the mountains jersey. The peloton then reformed before a more serious break went clear but, containing just two riders - Anna Christian (Trek-Drops) and Natalie van Gogh (Parkhotel Valkenburg) - it was never a real threat to the sprinters teams in the peloton.
Wiggle-High5 kept well hidden on the run-in to Doncaster, and perhaps profited from errors from rivals in the final couple of kilometres. First Sunweb misjudged a roundabout and ceded their position on the front to Wiggle, and less than a kilometre later Canyon-SRAM misread the final bend, taking their nominated sprinter Hannah Barnes out of the equation.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/womens-tour-de-yorkshire-2018/stage-1/results
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