It was a stage for the sprinters and, unlike their male counterparts in yesterday’s TDY stage, the peloton refused to let the break steal the limelight and a bunch sprint saw Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg CT) cross the line ahead of Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) and Alison Jackson (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank).
A rainy start to the day did nothing to dampen spirits in Barnsley as hosts of fans gathered to see some of the world’s best female cycling talent take to the start line of the Asda Women’s Tour de Yorkshire.
The race saw its strongest field to date with the top two riders in the UCI World Tour rankings Annemiek van Vleuten and Marianne Vos ready to tackle the General Classification.
The extremely talented field also hosts domestic and world talent with eyes on the Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries Blue leader’s jersey and it is hard to pick an out and out favourite.
Anna van der Breggen, fresh from her record-equalling fifth consecutive victory in La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, will be one to watch and don’t rule out home favourite Lizzie Deignan, who may say she is here looking to get more kilometres into her legs ahead of the UCI Road World Championships in September, but will definitely have one eye on taking back the Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s title that she last held in 2017.
The race rolled out of Barnsley at a steady pace and as the riders approached the first intermediate sprint at Pontefract 20km in, the bunch was still together with Susanne Andersen (Team Sunweb), Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) and Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) all taking points.
There were plenty of attempts to break after this point with none gaining too much traction as a strong peloton retained control, Sheffield’s Lizzy Banks (Bigla) was looking active and after a couple of attempts managed to break with serious effort to gain a 2-minute lead over the bunch as Leah Dixon (Brother-Tifosi p/b On Form) rode on to join her.
It would be Banks who would take the only Queen of the Mountains points of the day, resulting in her gaining the LNER Red QOM jersey.
Interview – Lizzy Banks – LNER Best Climber Red Jersey – Stage 1 – Womens Tour De Yorkshire 2019 by Cycling Shorts
Lizzy Banks chats to Chris Maher of CyclingShorts.cc after taking the LNER Best Climber Jersey in Stage 1 of the Women’s Tour de Yorkshire 2019. ©All content CyclingShorts.cc | chrismaher.co.uk
Interview – Leah Dixon – Stage 1 Women’s Tour de Yorkshire 2019 Grey Jersey by Cycling Shorts
Leah Dixon of Team OnForm talks to Chris Maher of CyclingShorts.cc after she took the Dimension Data Grey Jersey for the most active rider of the day on Stage 1 of the Women’s Tour de Yorkshire 2019 in Bedale. All content ©CyclingShorts.cc | chrismaher.co.uk
Just before the Harrogate Circuit, a key feature on the UCI Road World Championships route this coming September, four riders joined the break.
Kelly Murphy (Storey-Racing), Ingrid Lorvik (Hitec Products-Birk Sport), Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Valcar Cylance Cycling) and Lauren Kitchen (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futoroscope) all rode on to contest the next sprint in Harrogate. Kitchen took the spoils here ahead of Confalonieri and Lorvik.
The gap out of Harrogate was at just 37 seconds and the peloton started to ride aggressively to reel in the break. Trek-Segafredo made eye-catching moves with Audrey Cordon-Ragot, Tayler Wiles and Lizzie Deignan all offering big pushes for their team.
Lauren Kitchen in the break held on to take the Black Sheep Straight section of the race, winning her height in beer but it was here original break partner Leah Dixon who took the Dimension Data Digital Jersey.
As the race came into Bedale, the break was caught and although the Barnes sisters from CANYON//SRAM pushed from the front it was Parkhotel Valkenburg’s Lorena Wiebes who would sprint on to take the stage win.
Stage 1 Results
Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg)
Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries GC Jersey
Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg)
Asda Points Jersey
Lizzy Banks (Bigla)
LNER Queen of the Mountains Jersey
Leah Dixon (Brother-Tifosi p/b On Form)
Dimension Data Most Active Jersey
Asda Women's TdY Preview - Stage 2
The Asda Women’s Tour de Yorkshire comes to a conclusion with stage 2 on Saturday morning.
All images ©CyclingShorts.cc | www.chrismaher.co.uk
Chris Maher
Photographer & Writer
Based in the North East of England; photographer Chris Maher specialises in sports photography with his main interests in Cycling and Super Bikes. Chris has covered sports events from local and national level right up to the Olympics for CyclingShorts.cc.
Website: www.ChrisMaher.co.uk
Anna Magrath
Editor & Writer
Anna Magrath founded CyclingShorts.cc in 2008 and invited some of her cycling friends; coaches, photographers, writers and pro cyclists of different disciplines to join her, bringing you all things cycling related.
Over the years Anna has supported grass roots cycling events, riders and teams. Anna has a particular interest in Track, Road, womens cycling, recreational cycling and cycling related art. She has reported from the top cycle races on the world calendar including the Tour de France, Olympics, World Cups & World Championships.
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