Tiffany Cromwell today sprinted to fifth on stage one of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour in Kettering, Northamptonshire. The opening stage of the five-day tour was won solo by Kasia Niewiadoma (WM3) who takes a commanding lead in the general classification. Niewiadoma’s teammate Marianne Vos won the bunch sprint for second, ahead of Christine Majerus (DLT) while Cromwell held on for fifth place.

Cromwell said the team knew the stage was undulating but with strong winds predicted were looking for opportunities to create a split in the peloton. “Unfortunately too many of the roads were protected by hedges and buildings and with the lack of open fields we couldn’t utilise the wind as much as we wanted today.”

“In the final kilometres we knew we were racing for second place but were determined to sprint and our plan was to have Hannah go for it. With 2km to go Hannah was on my wheel but it was hectic and no one team really could maintain a lead out train on that course. Alena (Amialiusik) led us into the very final and at 1km to go I quickly looked back and Hannah wasn’t there. It was too late to find each other again and I made it quite well through the downhill technical roundabout straight after that so decided I had to go for it.”

“There was some slight hesitation with the leaders so with not wanting to lose momentum I went into the final corner first. I did the best sprint I could with the legs I had and a few girls came past in the last 100m. We’ll be looking forward to a good stage tomorrow.”

Daily highlights of each stage are televised on ITV4 and Eurosport. Stage two tomorrow starts at 11:00 (BST) in Stoke-On-Trent and Tiffany Cromwell is the best placed CANYON//SRAM rider on the general classification, 1:52 minutes behind Niewiadoma. Follow the stage action live on Twitter with #OVOWT and #UCIWWT.

Facebook

Twitter