The Ford RideLondon Classique, as the race is officially called, is a WorldTour-level race consisting of three stages. The race began this Friday with a 160-kilometer stage from Saffron Walden to Colchester. Two riders tried to break away from the peloton, but their attempt failed. That was partly because the teams with ambitions for the stage win aimed for the mass sprint. That indeed happened, with Lorena Wiebes emerging as the eventual winner.

"It was a long, but fairly calm stage today," Lieke Nooijen explained afterwards. The 22-year-old rider from Team Visma | Lease a Bike provided some more context: "It went up and down the whole day. We found each other well on the road, but at the end in the hectic conditions it went a little less well. As a result, we couldn't sprint with Nienke. It is a shame that we didn’t get a result today, because we definitely wanted to show ourselves in this strong field," says the Dutchwoman.

"Tomorrow we have a tough stage on the schedule,” Nooijen continued. "We hope to make the race hard then. We are at the start here without a designated leader, but we do have a strong team. Tomorrow there are a lot of climbs on the schedule. Personally, I benefit from a tough course. I hope I still have strength in my legs for a final shot. We're going to do our best tomorrow with all of us."

© Foto's: Ford RideLondon