Stage 1 - Lloyd’s Tour of Britain: Every Second Counts
The Tour de France Femmes may be over, but Follow the Femmes isn't.
Part of what we want to do with this project is encourage more people to keep watching, following and getting to know women's cycling beyond the Tour. So, the Daily Race Unpacks are back - this time from the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women.
And Stage 1 gave us plenty to talk about.
At 158.9 kms, plus another 8.4 kms of neutral riding, today was the longest stage of the race. Add almost 1 900 m of climbing and it was certainly not an easy opening day.
But unlike the Tour de France Femmes, where certain stages immediately stand out as major GC days, the Tour of Britain is a much more opportunistic race.
There isn't one huge mountain or obvious summit finish where everyone expects the general classification to be decided. Stage 3 provides the clearest uphill finish, but even that isn't an enormous mountain.
Instead, this is a race where seconds can be accumulated almost anywhere.
That makes intermediate sprints, bonus seconds and simply recognising the right moment incredibly important.
And we saw that from Stage 1.
A lonely start
The opening part of today's race was relatively uneventful.
None of the major teams seemed particularly interested in putting riders into an early breakaway, leaving Leila Gschwentner of Smurfit Westrock to head up the road alone.
It's always a difficult situation for a solo rider. Without anyone to share the workload, the chances of surviving almost 160 kilometres to the finish are incredibly small.
And with the first intermediate sprint approaching at around 52 kms, the peloton had another reason to bring her back.
That's where we started getting our first clues about who was thinking beyond simply today's stage result.
Kim Le Court-Pienaar and AG Insurance-Soudal were particularly attentive to the bonus seconds, with Kim collecting two seconds during the day. UAE Team ADQ were also active.
Interestingly, SD Worx-Protime weren't nearly as interested.
With Lorena Wiebes, Lotte Kopecky and Mischa Bredewold, they have several cards to play this week. Today, at least, their priority seemed much more focused on winning the stage than collecting seconds along the way.
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When the wind blows
Once the race reached the coastline around Whitehaven, things briefly became much more nervous.
Cross-tailwinds created an opportunity to split the peloton, and suddenly all the big teams wanted to be at the front.
UAE Team ADQ, Visma-Lease a Bike, AG Insurance-Soudal and SD Worx-Protime all tried to use the wind to create echelons.
For anyone new to watching cycling, this is why windy sections can suddenly transform an otherwise straightforward stage.
When the wind comes strongly from the side, riders can't simply sit directly behind one another to save energy. Instead, they need to stagger across the road to find shelter. Once the road is full, riders behind can become exposed to the wind and gaps start opening incredibly quickly.
Today, though, the opportunity was short-lived.
The race came back together.
Unfortunately, not long afterwards, Dutch champion Lieke Nooijen — who had looked particularly strong and active during the crosswind section — was involved in a heavy crash and ultimately had to abandon the race.
A really unfortunate end after she'd been so visible at the front.
A young rider willing to try
One of my favourite stories of the day came from the Alba Development Road Team.
Rosalie Blackburn, the youngest rider in the race, decided to attack.
Alba is a Scottish development team - the name itself comes from the Gaelic word for Scotland - and opportunities like the Tour of Britain are incredibly valuable for a team at this level.
Rosalie could quite easily have stayed safely inside the peloton.
Instead, she put herself out there.
That's exactly what development should be about: being brave enough to test yourself, discovering where your limits are and giving your team visibility on one of the biggest stages available to you.
There's another nice connection here.
Alba is directed by Anna Shackley, my former teammate at SD Worx. Anna was an incredibly talented Scottish rider whose own racing career unfortunately ended far too young because of a cardiac arrhythmia.
It's great to see her remaining in the sport and now using that experience to help develop the next generation.
Rosie initially attacked alone before being joined by Audrey De Keersmaeker of Picnic PostNL, who produced a strong effort to bridge across.
As the road became harder, the difference between them began to show and Audrey eventually continued alone.
Sometimes getting caught isn't the end
Audrey's ride became another of my favourite moments of the stage.
She spent a long time alone at the front, with her advantage generally hovering between around 30 seconds and a minute.
Her objective became increasingly clear: the Queen of the Mountains jersey.
As the peloton approached the final classified climb, however, the GC teams started making the race much harder.
AG Insurance-Soudal were particularly active. With Lorena Wiebes still present, there was every incentive to use the climbing to make her work — or ideally distance her altogether.
Audrey's advantage disappeared rapidly.
She was caught before reaching the summit.
Normally, you'd think: game over.
Audrey didn't.
She stayed in the fight and still managed to contest the QOM sprint from within the group, collecting enough points to finish the day in the mountains jersey.
I loved that.
Getting caught after spending so long alone can be incredibly demoralising. Your instinct can be to sit up and recover.
Instead, she immediately reset her objective and fought for every remaining point.
Audrey also has a great story.
She came to cycling relatively late, after taking part in a Belgian talent competition during the COVID period. That opened the door to racing, initially through cyclocross before progressing onto the road and eventually reaching WorldTour level.
Another reminder that there isn't only one pathway into professional cycling.
Chaos all the way to the finish
Once Audrey was caught, the race became incredibly aggressive.
Visma-Lease a Bike attacked.
Uno-X attacked.
Movistar attacked.
Liv AlUla Jayco attacked.
Lidl-Trek tried.
Kim Le Court-Pienaar had a go herself.
Even SD Worx-Protime were willing to send riders up the road.
The reason was simple.
If you're arriving at the finish with Lorena Wiebes, your chances aren't particularly good.
So if you don't have a sprinter capable of beating her, you need to find another way to win.
That's what makes these stages tactically interesting. Different teams are effectively racing towards completely different objectives.
Some want the sprint.
Some want bonus seconds.
Some need a breakaway.
Some are already thinking about the overall classification.
But nothing stuck.
And once we entered the final 10 kms, SD Worx-Protime took control.
The perfect lead-out
From there, we saw exactly why SD Worx-Protime are so difficult to beat.
They had numbers.
They had options.
And they had the fastest sprinter in the race.
Lotte Kopecky played an important role in positioning the team through the final kilometre before Mischa Bredewold took over, delivering Lorena Wiebes towards the final corner.
Then Lorena did what Lorena does.
She won.
Plenty of teams had spent the day trying to make the race difficult enough to remove her from contention. Crosswinds, climbing, attacks - none of it worked.
Lorena survived everything and still had the speed when it mattered.
And that's perhaps the biggest warning for the rest of the peloton.
She's not simply sprinting well.
She's climbing well enough to still be there when the sprint arrives.
That makes her a genuine threat not only for stage victories, but potentially for the overall classification in a race like this.
Tomorrow brings another interesting stage, with much of the climbing coming earlier before a longer, flatter run towards the finish.
On paper, that again looks favourable for Lorena.
But if today taught us anything, it's that plenty of teams know they can't afford to simply wait and sprint against her.
So expect them to keep trying.
Stage 1 belonged to Lorena Wiebes.
But perhaps more importantly, it gave us our first glimpse of how everyone else might try to beat her.
And that's exactly what makes the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women so interesting to watch.
— Ashleigh
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