Rotterdam hosted the start of the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. From the Dutch port city, the peloton set off for 123 flat kilometres towards the arrival city of The Hague.  

The peloton had set its sights on a bunch sprint. The few attack attempts in the opening stages were immediately countered. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women riders were consistently at the front of the peloton. For the fast Vos - who collected points along the way for the points jersey - a great opportunity for a stage win was immediately up for grabs. The preparation for that sprint was chaotic. In the end, she had to start her sprint from too far away. Vos finished in fifth place.  

"It was a pretty hectic final," Vos said afterwards. "All kinds of things were happening around me, but I was focused on riding the best possible sprint. I was a bit too far back in the final kilometre, so I couldn't sprint for the win. I still did everything I could, but Cool turned out to be the fastest today."  

Sports director Jan Boven looks back on his riders' first stage. "During the whole stage there was nervousness. We hoped Marianne was going to be able to compete for the stage win. Our aim was to follow Lorena Wiebes in build-up towards the sprint, but in hindsight that didn't turn out to be the best choice today."  

There will be two stages in the Tour de France avec Zwift on Tuesday. After a short morning stage, a six-kilometre individual time trial is scheduled. "It will be unique to ride two stages in the same day," says Riejanne Markus. "The flat stage will be similar to today's stage. After that, the time trial in Rotterdam is something I am looking forward to immensely.”