Stage 2 of the 2025 Baloise Ladies Tour delivered a fast, technical finale, and an unexpected winner, as 21-year-old Nienke Veenhoven sprinted to her first professional victory. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider timed her effort perfectly on the slightly uphill finishing straight in Zulte, crossing the line ahead of Barbara Guarischi and Karolina Kumiega after a flawless lead-out from her team.
The 127.3km stage started and finished in Zulte, looping five times around a circuit that included cobbles, narrow roads, and two small categorised climbs. Although the course featured nearly 6km of cobblestones in the opening half, including the Huisepontweg sector twice, the early positioning of those sections meant they had little bearing on the overall outcome.
The day’s first break formed just seven kilometres into the stage, with five riders going clear: Matilde Vitillo, Aidi Gerde Tuisk, Léa Stern, Rose Kloese and Natalie Quinn. The group quickly built a gap of over two minutes as they passed over the Nokereberg climb with 69km to go, but their effort began to fade once the peloton reached the local laps and the flat run-in back towards Zulte.
By the first pass through the finish line, with 42km remaining, the break’s advantage had dropped under 50 seconds. Ellen van Dijk, sitting third on GC, crashed just before this point but managed to rejoin the bunch. The catch was made with 34km to go, and from there the pace lifted again as attacks flew from the bunch.
An acceleration from Zoë Bäckstedt sparked a short-lived 11-rider move, with Femke Markus doing much of the work for SD Worx-Protime. That was reeled in, only for Markus to try again in the closing laps. Henrietta Colborne and Febe Jooris also tried their luck with 20km to go, opening up a 20-second gap, but were caught before the final lap.
Markus launched a final dig with just over 6km remaining and was joined briefly by Marike Meert, but they were pulled back with 3.2km to go. That set up a high-speed drag race to the line, where Visma-Lease a Bike took full control.
Martina Fidanza provided the final pull before Veenhoven launched from an outside line. The Dutch rider came past the favourites with power to spare, comfortably winning by a bike length. Consonni, Copponi and Fortin rounded out the top six, with Charlotte Kool finishing 7th after losing position in the finale. Despite that, Kool retains the race lead going into Saturday’s double-stage day in Maldegem.
“This is really special,” said Veenhoven. “From the start, the team rode for me and I’m so happy I could finish it off. With one kilometre to go, we hit the front and didn’t give it up. Linda, Martina, Margaux, Carlijn and Sophie all did a fantastic job today. We’ll see later if I sprint again tomorrow.”
Kool admitted frustration at her positioning in the finale. “It just didn’t come together. We tried to come up the left side but someone came across and it got tight. I lost Consonni’s wheel and couldn’t get back in. You can’t win every time.”
2025 Baloise Ladies Tour Stage 2 result
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Main photo credit: Getty
