Lorena Wiebes wins first stage of the Tour of Poland

Lorena Wiebes returned to winning ways in the Tour of Poland. As several riders were held up, Barbara Guarischi finished second in the sprint. “Our team spent the whole day chasing, so I’m happy I was able to finish off the team’s hard work,” said Wiebes.

The final few hundred metres of the opening stage of the Tour of Poland were marked by a crash at a roundabout. After a day of rain showers, the surface had become slippery. Marta Lach was the first to go down. Lorena Wiebes just managed to avoid her falling teammate. Behind her, several riders slid out as soon as they touched their brakes. As a result, Wiebes and her teammate Guarischi secured a one-two finish, but they did not celebrate as the sprint had been so heavily disrupted.

Lorena Wiebes: “We had a good day with Team SD Worx-Protime despite the heavy rain. Lisa van Belle did a lot of work at the start of the race. There were quite a few attacks on the climbs. After the hills, Lotte Kopecky and Femke Gerritse did a great job controlling the race and chasing down moves.

That gave us the sprint we wanted. The lead-out was well timed, but it was unfortunate that Marta crashed at the roundabout. Fortunately, I was able to avoid it by hopping over the curb and still finish off the team’s work. Today, we will certainly try to defend the yellow jersey and hopefully take another stage victory.”