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Dutch rider Charlotte Kool surged to win stage one of the Tour de France Femmes in a bunch sprint finish in The Hague.<\/b><\/p>\n
DSM-Firmenich PostNL’s Kool kicked clear with around 100m to go and held off the chasers to claim the first leader’s yellow jersey of the eight-stage race.<\/p>\n
Finland’s Anniina Ahtosalo of Uno-X finished second, with Italian Elisa Balsamo of Lidl Trek in third.<\/p>\n
Pre-stage favourite Lorena Wiebes sustained a dropped chain with 200m remaining and could not contest the finish.<\/p>\n
“It was really hectic but I like it. I kept on thinking, ‘OK I like hectic, I like chaos’,” said Kool, 25.<\/p>\n
“I went so early and I thought it’s too long and it hurt so bad but it was enough in the end.”<\/p>\n
Stage one was a 124km flat run from Rotterdam to The Hague in the Netherlands, with this the first time the race, in its third edition, has started outside France.<\/p>\n
A huge crash in the middle of the peloton at 69km to go brought dozens of riders to a halt but no rider was seriously hurt.<\/p>\n
Despite a frantic run-in to the line, Wiebes looked ideally placed on the wheel of lead-out rider Barbara Guarischi.<\/p>\n
But her chain problem forced her to sit up and Kool followed Guarischi before launching out of her slipstream as the Italian looked round to see Wiebes had drifted back.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Demi Vollering had a relatively easy day and finished safely in the bunch.<\/p>\n
The race continues in the Netherlands with two stages both taking place on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The riders face a 67km flat course from Dordrecht to Rotterdam in the morning before a 6.3km individual time trial in Rotterdam in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Tour then moves from the Netherlands into Belgium on Wednesday before finally arriving in France on Thursday, with the final stage taking place on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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