The opening road stage of the 2023 Baloise Ladies Tour saw a bunch sprint won by Charlotte Kool after crashes broke up the peloton in the last 4km. Most of the stage up until then had been plain sailing. It took a long time for a break to gain time and when it did Aniek Mos and Aniek van Alphen were able to get close to a minute’s gap in the latter stages before being caught again by the peloton. From there, it should have been an easy ride to the finishing sprint but a large crash at 4km to go saw riders like Kim Cadzow and Anna Trevisi have to abandon the race.
A further crash in the finishing straight saw Nathalie Bex go down hard at speed with a couple of other riders and this was compounded when shortly afterwards a pedestrian wandered onto the course and made contact with Antonia Grondahl, causing a further crash near the finish. Kool, Norsgaard and Brand were able to safely negotiate all the falls to finish as the stage’s top 3.
Race photos
