Lieke Nooijen wins Eneco Tour Women 2026 prologue in The Hague

Lieke Nooijen delivered a dominant late ride to win the opening prologue of the 2026 Eneco Tour Women in The Hague, beating Charlotte Kool by 8.21 seconds over just 3.1km.

The Dutch champion stopped the clock at 3:51.72 after starting close to the end of the women’s field, finally removing Kool from a hot seat she had occupied for more than two hours. Lonneke Uneken came within one hundredth of a second of taking the provisional lead from Kool shortly before Nooijen started, only for both times to be comprehensively beaten moments later.

Uneken finished third at 8.22 seconds, with Sandrine Tas fourth at 8.79. VolkerWessels Cycling Team placed three riders inside the top six through Uneken, Maud Rijnbeek and Anneke Dijkstra, while Nienke Vinke, Letizia Borghesi, Femke Markus and Margaux Vigié completed the top 10.

How it unfolded

The 3.1km opening prologue around the Sportcampus Zuiderpark was never going to be a conventional time trial. The completely flat course packed several changes of direction into less than four minutes of racing, making acceleration, line choice and carrying speed through the corners at least as important as sustained power.

The unusual starting format added another layer. Rather than sending the entire women’s field away in one continuous sequence, the race alternated blocks of women and men after the original plan to alternate individual riders was dropped. It meant some of the main contenders were separated by more than two hours.

That became particularly important for Kool.

The Fenix-Premier Tech sprinter started at 18:27 local time, towards the end of the opening women’s block, and produced the first time that nobody could dislodge. Over such a short prologue, Kool’s explosive power made her a genuine threat despite not being one of the traditional time trial specialists.

Her benchmark survived the remainder of that block, another group of men and the next wave of women. Rider after rider arrived without getting close enough to remove her from the top of the standings, leaving Kool in the hot seat for almost the entire evening.

Uneken misses Kool by one hundredth

The most dramatic challenge to Kool came almost at the end of the women’s race.

Uneken rolled down the start ramp at 20:40 and produced a ride that looked capable of finally changing the leader. When her time appeared, the difference could hardly have been smaller.

She was 0.01 seconds slower than Kool.

After more than two hours in the lead, Kool had survived by one hundredth of a second. For Uneken it was the smallest possible margin between taking the provisional victory and sitting second, although her performance still underlined an excellent evening for VolkerWessels.

The team had already seen Rijnbeek and Dijkstra ride into the upper part of the standings. Uneken’s time put a third VolkerWessels rider into the top six and briefly left the Dutch team within a fraction of the stage lead.

Two minutes later, the entire picture changed.

Nooijen takes eight seconds out of the field

Nooijen started at 20:42, with only three women still to follow her. She had the advantage of knowing exactly what was required, but the margin she produced went far beyond simply edging ahead of Kool.

The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider crossed the line in 3:51.72, immediately taking 8.21 seconds out of Kool and 8.22 out of Uneken.

On a 3.1km course, that was a substantial difference. The second and third placed riders had been separated by one hundredth; Nooijen arrived and turned that fight into one for second place.

It was not an unexpected name at the top. Nooijen had been identified as the leading overall contender in the Eneco Tour Women contenders preview largely because of the amount of time trialling in this year’s route.

The scale of the advantage was more striking. Kool had shown how competitive an explosive rider could be over such a short distance, while Uneken had matched her almost exactly. Nooijen was operating at a different level once she reached the course.

Nooijen carries Tour de France time trial form into the Eneco Tour

The result continues a season in which Nooijen has moved firmly into the group of leading Dutch riders against the clock.

She finished third in the Dutch time trial championship before becoming national road champion, then produced one of the strongest performances of her career at the Tour de France Femmes. In the 21km Dijon time trial, only Marlen Reusser went faster, with Nooijen finishing four seconds behind the Swiss rider and ahead of several established international specialists.

The Hague asked a very different question. There was no need to manage a 20-minute effort or judge a long pacing strategy. Instead, riders had to reach full speed quickly, commit through the corners and maintain an effort lasting less than four minutes.

Nooijen proved equally suited to that test and leaves the opening evening with both the stage victory and the first overall lead of the race.

Eight seconds already matters for the GC

The prologue cannot decide the Eneco Tour Women, especially with Thursday’s much longer 13.6km individual time trial in Tilburg still to come, but Nooijen has already gained more time than might have been expected from such a short opener.

Vinke, one of her main general classification rivals, finished seventh at 10.90 seconds. Markus lost 11.79, while Vigié finished 11.87 seconds down. Those are not decisive gaps with five race days remaining, but they give Nooijen useful room before the race reaches its more selective stages.

The next test is the flat 79.5km stage around Ede, where Kool should have an immediate opportunity to turn her prologue form into a sprint challenge. After that comes Tilburg, followed by the hillier Sittard-Watersley stage and the VAMberg finish.

For Kool, the opening evening was therefore both encouraging and slightly cruel. She spent most of the prologue believing her early benchmark might survive, watched Uneken miss it by the smallest measurable margin, and then saw Nooijen arrive late and settle the stage emphatically.

For Nooijen, it was close to the ideal start. The pre-race favourite has already shown why the time trials make this route particularly attractive to her, and she will begin the first road stage with an eight-second advantage over everyone else.

Eneco Tour Women 2026 prologue result