Margot Vanpachtenbeke (VolkerWessels Women's Pro Cycling) secured the opening stage victory at the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour, winning a two-up sprint against breakaway companion Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) in Jena.
The pair opened a gap over the peloton on the first climb of the day Großbockedra and increased their lead by nearly seven minutes en route to the finish line.
Although several teams played a role in trying to close the gap in the closing kilometres, the pair crossed the line 5:34 seconds ahead of a chase group where Linda Riedmann (Germany) sprinted in for third place on the day.
Vanpachtenbeke claimed the first leader's jersey as the race heads into stage 2's 119.2km race in Gera on Wednesday.
How it unfolded
The opening stage at the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour offered the peloton a 118km race in Jena. The route included two categorised ascents: Großbockedra, 1.3km at 7% located at 52km into the stage and a final scent of Münchenroda, which is one of the longest climbs of the five-day race at 4.9km and 5% gradient located at the 100km mark. The field then raced across 10km of an undulating plateau before plunging into the finish line in Jena.
Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels Women's Pro Cycling) took the mountain points over the top of the Großbockedra before two riders escaped: her teammate Margot Vanpachtenbeke and Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health).
Edwards and Vanpachtenbeke quickly gained a minute on the field, initially led by SD Worx-Protime, EF Education-Cannondale and AG Insurance-Soudal. Their lead then increased to nearly three minutes with 50km to go, even as Lidl-Trek and Ceratizit-WNT joined the pace-setting.
The pair raced into the base of the Münchenroda climb, pushing their gap out to nearly seven minutes, with Vanpachtenbeke taking the mountain points over the top.
Canyon-SRAM led the chasing field into the climb, where Kasia Niewiadoma made a move on the upper slopes. But even though there were constant attacks and splits in the field, the peloton came back together and remained mostly intact on the run-in to the finish.
With no concerted effort among the teams to bring back the two escapees, Edwards and Vanpachtenbeke still had a massive six minutes as the closed in on the finish line.
Edwards pulled the pair into the final kilometre and started her sprint early, but Vanpachtenbeke proved faster of the two, taking both the stage win and the leader's jersey.
Results
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