THE HAGUE (AFP) – Dutch rider Charlotte Kool kept her head amid a chaotic bunched sprint finish to win the first stage of the women's Tour de France on Monday.
"It was really hectic but I like it. I kept on thinking 'OK I like hectic, I like chaos'," said the 25-year-old.
"I went so early and I thought it's too long and it hurt so bad but it was enough in the end."
Kool, born in North Holland, took the yellow jersey on home soil as the women's Tour got underway in the Netherlands with a 123-kilometre flat ride from Rotterdam to The Hague.
Topping 60kmh as she crossed the line, the dsm-firmenich PostNL rider claimed her maiden Tour win with an unstoppable surge in the last 100 metres to complete the stage in a time of two hours 47 minutes and 40 seconds.
"It's a dream coming true," said Kool. "It was not an easy season and this is where it was all about... This is I think the best day of my life."
Finland's Anniina Ahtosalo of Uno-X and Italian Elisa Balsamo of Lidl Trek completed the podium.
The pre-race favourite, Lorena Wiebes, fell foul of a problem with the chain of her bike just an agonising 200m from the finish line, leaving the route open for her compatriot to sprint to her first win of the season.
Reigning Tour champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands had a quiet day as did her fellow podium contenders Pole Katarzyna Niewiadoma and France's Juliette Labous and Evita Muzic.
There was drama with 69km still to go when a mass crash in the middle of peloton brought dozens of riders to a halt on a bridge near the Meuse river.
Thankfully none of the competitors were seriously hurt and all were able to remount their bikes and take off again in pursuit of the front half of the peloton.
Although a flat stage through the lowlands of South Holland, Italian Cristina Tonetti of Laboral Kutxa claimed the first polka dot jersey of the race by winning the only climb of the stage.
Race-winner Kool also claimed the green sprint points jersey in addition to the overall leader's yellow tunic.
Two stages will be raced on Tuesday, the first over 69.7km from Dordrecht back to Rotterdam across the Dutch flatlands, followed by a 6.3km individual time-trial.
The race finishes on Sunday at Alpe d'Huez, a ski resort in southeastern France.