RideLondon Classique: Charlotte Kool sprints to explosive stage 1 victory

Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) sprinted to victory on the opening stage of the 2023 RideLondon Classique after going with a late breakaway on an aggressive finish into Colchester.

Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ) was her closest challenger in second, whilst breakaway animator Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) took third.

The early breakaway of Danni Shrosbree (DAS Handsling), Hanna Johansson (Torelli) and Francesca Morgans-Slader (AWOL O’Shea) were caught with 55km to go, and what followed was a full-on 30km of attacks with plenty of teams keen to avoid a bunch sprint.

That tactic succeeded when a small group got away, but perhaps less ideally it contained stage favourite Kool and her lead-out woman Pfeiffer Georgi, making Kool practically unbeatable even in the face of some aggressive racing.

“It was an easy day from the beginning actually, and then we tried to get a gap steady [to the early breakaway], and we worked really well,” Kool said at the finish. “And then in the final they went full racing. We had to adapt a bit, but we were with the right girls in front and then we had to finish it off. Pfeiffer did a perfect lead out, so a dream start.

“I think Pfeiffer showed again that she’s one of the best lead-outs in the world. She brought me in a perfect position.”

How it happened

Starting in Saffron Walden, the peloton rolled out under blue skies and sun for the start of the 146km opening stage to Colchester. With a lumpy route but a flat finish on the cards, a bunch sprint of some sort was expected.

Almost as soon as the flag dropped for the official start, the breakaway attempts started with early attackers Hanna Johansson (Torelli) and Francesca Morgans-Slader (AWOL O’Shea) going up the road. The peloton seemed happy to let them go, and the pair built up a lead of two and half minutes after 30km of racing, allowing Johansson to take maximum points at the first QoM point. Scarlett Souren (Parkhotel-Valkenburg) attempted to bridge, and was later joined by Danni Shrosbree (DAS Handsling).

After 50km of racing, pre-race favourite Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) was involved in a crash and after initially trying to chase back to the bunch, the Italian abandoned. Up ahead, Shrosbree from the chasers joined the two leaders after dropping Souren. With still 90km of racing to come, the peloton seemed content to give the escapees a stable two minutes’ advantage, but it did start to come down again after the halfway point of the race.

With 60km to go, a heavy crash in the peloton on a traffic island saw several riders hit the tarmac hard, including Victoire Berteau (Cofidis), Sammie Stuart (DAS Handsling) and Arianna Fidanza (Ceratizit-WNT), who later abandoned. This crash took a bit of momentum out of the chase, but with the trio up the road tiring, the gap continued shrinking. They held on until the second QoM point, which Johansson won again to claim the jersey at the end of the day.

As the peloton hit the climb, some attacks started off the front of the peloton with Liv Racing TeqFind’s Katia Ragusa using the incline as a ramp to launch off. A handful of riders followed, including Lauretta Hanson and Elynor Bäckstedt from Trek-Segafredo, and the acceleration was enough to sweep up the leaders, but the peloton was careful not to let such a strong group get away. With 44km to go, Lizzie Deignan was the next Trek rider to attack, enjoying some time off the front in her return to UK racing, but DSM were quick to bring her back.

Velo Collection (Stephen Pond) / Getty Images

Lizzie Deignan stepped into a race leader role after Elisa Balsamo’s abandon.

Despite the flat finish approaching, the attacks didn’t let up with several riders trying to exploit the rolling roads to put the sprinters into difficulty. None of the attacks really stuck until Jessica Finney (AWOL O’Shea) got a small gap going into the last 30km, but that was short-lived as again some Trek and DSM-led attacks reeled her back in. With 25km to go, a bigger group split off the front of the peloton, including Deignan, Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ) and stage favourite Charlotte Kool (Team DSM). At the intermediate sprint, Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) took maximum points and bonus seconds.

With 21km to go, Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) launched a move from the peloton to try and join the leaders, with teammate Maike van der Duin then joining her to help. Going into the last 15km, Deignan tried to put the hammer down on the front of the lead group, but couldn’t force any splits and a few kilometres later, Dygert and Van der Duin joined them. The leaders were still only 30 seconds ahead of the peloton, so continuing to push was crucial in the last 8km.

Noemi Rüegg (Jumbo-Visma) tried her luck with 4km left, but heading towards the finale, it looked poised for a sprint. Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) and Paladin led it out for Kool and Van der Duin respectively, and once Georgi swung off to let Kool open up her sprint, the Dutch rider proved unbeatable. Clara Copponi was the closest rider, but no one could come round Kool at full-tilt and the Team DSM rider raised her arms over the line. Deignan sprinted to third, whilst Canyon-SRAM settled for Van der Duin in 4th after a long day of working.

Charlotte Kool now leads the race by four seconds over Copponi, and some thirty seconds over the riders who finished in the peloton. Johansson will wear the mountains jersey, Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) is the best young rider, and Kool leads the sprints competition, but Copponi will wear the jersey on stage 2.

RideLondon Classique 2023 stage 1 results:

1. Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) 3:56:35
2. Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ) s.t.
3. Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) s.t.
4. Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM) s.t.
5. Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) s.t.
6. Teuntje Beekhuis (Jumbo-Visma) s.t.
7. Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT) s.t.
8. Noemi Rüegg (Jumbo-Visma) s.t.
9. Thalita de Jong (Liv Racing TeqFind) s.t.
10. Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) s.t.

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all three stages of this year’s RideLondon Classique from Friday, May 26 to Sunday, May 28. Head over to GCN+ now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.