Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands won the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes, beating off fellow countrywoman Marianne Vos in a sprint finish in Paris.
Wiebes of Team DSM easily defeated three-time road world champion Vos to capture the race's yellow jersey with the historic victory on the Champs-Elysees.
Belgian Lotte Kopecky earned the final bonus point, beating off Italian Rachele Barbieri.
It's incredible. Wiebes noted that the crew performed a great job.
"It was an extremely unpredictable sprint that went on for a long time." I felt completely at peace before the event began. We conducted ourselves normally and approached the race as usual, but obviously, I became very anxious as the race came to a close.
It was fairly close, but luckily I was able to speed up once more and cross the finish line.
Up until 2009, the women's event had taken on many forms, but this new eight-stage race marks the first time since 1989 that it has been formally conducted and hosted by the men's Tour de France organizers.
The peloton was not threatened by any attacks over the opening 82 km of the route, which included 12 laps of the famous Champs-Elysees circuit, which had previously appeared in three La Course by Le Tour de France events between 2014 and 2016.
Gladys Verhulst, a French cyclist, broke away in the final 20 kilometers and built a lead of more than 40 seconds, but the peloton pulled her in before the frantic finish.
Vos, who took first place in the first intermediate sprint, made a long dash for the finish line with strong team support, but Wiebes perfectly timed her final drive.
My team performed flawlessly, claimed Vos. They helped me avoid danger. Everything ran smoothly. There was nothing I could have done when Lorena started her sprint.
"You cannot hold yourself accountable for your own inaction. Today, Lorena played flawlessly, and she deserved to win.
Stage two, a 136.4-kilometer flat route from Meaux to Provins, is anticipated to be another successful day for the sprinters.