"I'm super happy with this victory. I've worked really hard towards this, so it's great to win such a short prologue by eight seconds", the delighted winner said. "I went full gas from the start and managed to maintain my speed throughout. These short efforts really suit me, and that paid off today."

The Dutch stage race got underway on Tuesday evening with a 3.1-kilometre prologue in The Hague. Nooijen was the penultimate rider to roll down the start ramp and immediately set a blistering pace, recording a remarkably fast time at the first intermediate checkpoint. She stopped the clock at 3 minutes and 51 seconds, comfortably beating the rest of the field. "I'm really looking forward to giving it our all with the team tomorrow, but first we're going to enjoy this moment."