Kim Le Court pips Kristen Faulkner in dramatic stage 1 at Tour of Britain Women

Le Court triggered the winning move on Langburn's Bank with 36km remaining, an attack that caused huge splits behind. Faulkner managed to bridge up to Le Court over the top of the climb, while a chasing group of 25 riders attempted to reel in the duo, who obtained a maximum gap of 35 seconds.

They closed to within touching distance of the leaders on the run-in, but they couldn’t close the final gap. Le Court out-sprinted Faulkner to take the stage and the overall lead, while pre-stage favourite Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx - Protime) won the sprint for third at five seconds, ahead of Linda Zanetti (Uno X Mobility) and Cat Ferguson (Movistar).

The victory was Le Court’s second UCI Women’s WorldTour win of the season after her triumph in Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes in April. 

AG Insurance-Soudal DS Dani Christmas summed up team’s performance. “They are absolutely delighted,” Christmas told Domestique. “It was the ideal scenario for us, it pretty much went exactly to plan. We were really looking to make sure we can go on the attack.”

Stage 1 of the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, a bumpy 81 km stage from Dalby Forest finished down by the coast in the centre of Redcar.

The opening part of the stage took the riders through the glorious North Yorkshire moors. The moors are very open and exposed, so that produced a strong tailwind as the peloton tackled the terrain.

The first categorised climb of the Lloyds Tour of Britain was Blakey Ridge, a 5.6km climb averaging at 4.2%. The fight for those QoM points was a feisty affair with Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) pipping Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) in second and Margaux Vigié (Visma | Lease a Bike) third.

On the next categorised climb of the day, Langburn's Bank (2.3 km with an average grade of 5.6%), Le Court decided to light things up in an attempt to put the sprinters in trouble, which caused splits behind.

That created a chasing group of around 25 riders behind the duo. Le Court took the maximum of six points on the climb, where she was followed closely by Faulkner.

The Olympic champion managed to bridge across to Le Court, and the duo worked cohesively building a gap of which rose to a maximum of 34 seconds. In the final third of the stage, the riders had to face a number of steep ascents up 25%. 

The chasing group behind Faulkner and Le Court was led by Movistar, who worked hard putting a number of riders at the front of said group with the goal of setting up the chances of young British talent, Cat Ferguson. FDJ-Suez also shown their force appearing at the front for Ally Wollaston, but Wiebes was isolated in the group.

Le Court rolled over the line in the sole intermediate sprint of the day, taking home three bonus seconds ahead of Faulkner, with Cat Ferguson taking the remaining bonus second available behind them.

The game of ‘cat and mouse’ between the leading pair and the peloton continued over the remaining distance of the race with the duo of Faulkner and Le Court triumphing over the peloton.

In the sprint of the chasing group behind, Wiebes took third on the stage. "I was isolated from my team,” Wiebes told Domestique afterwards. “It was up to other teams to chase but it was not enough.”

Stage 2 on Friday features tough finale at Saltburn Bank. “It will be a hard stage,” Wiebes said. “We will suffer.”