Le Col-Wahoo left the first Tour de France Femmes stage in Paris with both the red numbers for combativity and the white jersey after a strong solo attack from Gladys Verhulst and a sixth-place finish in the sprint for Maike van der Duin.
The UK-based Continental team were one of the wildcards invited to the race and came with the aim of good stage results and a plan to deliver aggressive racing, something they have already achieved on stage 1.
French rider Verhulst attacked in the final 20km and forged an impressive forty second lead over the charging peloton, and was only caught in the final kilometres.
“It was a pleasure to be out the front today,” Verhulst said at the finish. “I’m really happy to have the combativity prize in Paris because that proves that I’m an attacking rider. So I’m proud.”
“It was also good day for the team, because we have the white jersey and the combative so it’s cool,” she said. I did a very hard effort and I am satisfied with this combative prize. It was a good day today.”
Verhulst told Cyclingnews before the race how she would be targeting stages in the first half of the week, especially in light of the added attention on the race, as the team looked to put themselves in the spotlight.
With Verhulst caught, it was Maike van der Duin who was the Le Col-Wahoo's designated sprinter for the finale, finishing an impressive sixth just ahead of the world champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo).
The team has options in Jesse Vandenbulcke and Marjolein Van‘t Geloof for sprints in France, but as the only under-23 rider in the squad, there was a particularly big incentive for Van der Duin to place well.
“I’m really really happy,” Van der Duin said at the finish. “It’s really nice that they have this special jersey for the younger girls and the under 23s.”
“Before the start today, even the week before, I was thinking about this and of course the goal is to sprint for the win today, but I know if we do a sprint we’ll see what we can do and if it works out, we also can go for the white jersey. It worked out really nice in the end.”
With only 32 riders eligible for the white jersey at this Tour de France Femmes – most of them in non-WorldTour teams – the competition to be best young rider remains open, and may become a target for Van der Duin.
“Maybe there’s not as many [young riders] as normal, but I think we have to see day-by-day,” she said. “Of course we go for it every day, we fight for it, we’ll enjoy it to the max and see how it is each day.”
Le Col-Wahoo will have another chance to test themselves in what is expected to be a sprint stage into Provins on Monday.
