Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Volker Wessels) won stage 1 of the LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour in Jena by outsprinting breakaway companion Ruth Winder (Human Powered Health). Linda Riedmann (German National Team) won the peloton sprint for third place.
For Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Volker Wessels) it was her first pro victory, and more important than the leader’s jersey. “The first part of the day was very easy. The team did very well and made some attacks. After the first mountain classification, I had the moment to attack together with Ruth. Then it was a long and hard day, we had a lot of headwind. But I’m super happy to have won. The victory is more important to me, the overall ranking doesn’t matter to me. But the lead is already big, I’ll see how the next few days go.”
Linda Riedmann (German National Team) was pleased with her sprint, saying afterwards, “I’m very happy, I didn’t expect that – I wanted to finish in the top 10. Through the closed railway barrier I came from the third group back into the second group, tried not to be distracted and to concentrate on the sprint. I’ll just keep looking from day to day.”
103 riders from 18 teams (10 WorldTour, 6 Contintental, 2 National) lined up for stage 1 (118.5km) under temperatures that hit close to 30C.
The peloton started the 118.5km stage with little concern for breakaways, allowing Sabrina Stultiens (Volker Wessels) to attack, followed by teammate Eline Jansen, who took the first queen of the mountain classification after 52 kilometers. It was then Margot Vanpachtenbeke’s (Volker Wessels) turn to attack, and she and Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) quickly established a gap of over four minutes.
With just under 18 kilometers to go, the two leaders still had a gap gap of four minutes. Canyon-SRAM and SD Worx-Protime began a chase but took awhile to get organized. Once the chase did get organized, bad luck hit at 11.2km to go in the form of a closed railway crossing that stopped th entire peloton. The two leaders, having made it through the crossing, extended their lead and in the end the peloton was only able to bring the gap down to about three minutes.
In the sprint, Vanpachtenbeke had no trouble in outsprinting her breakaway companion, Edwards, who appeared to have nothing left in the final hundred meters.
RESULTS
Stage 1: Jena > Jena (118.5km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
