Soraya Paladin sprinted to tenth place on the opening stage of the Ford RideLondon Classique from Saffron Walden to Colchester. An early two-rider breakaway collected most QOM and bonus seconds on offer before being caught with 16km to go. Alice Towers attacked in the closing ten kilometres and was later joined by Lauretta Hanson (LDK) before they were also caught. It came down to a hectic sprint finish with an uphill drag in the last 600m. Soraya spent some energy early and fought hard to finish in tenth place. Maike van der Duin was in fourteenth place on the stage and they pair take the same places on the general classification, tenth and fourteenth at +11 seconds.

RIDER REACTIONS

Soraya Paladin: “I’m a bit disappointed after the stage, finishing tenth. It’s always good to put pressure on the other teams by having a teammate attack late on the stage. Alice did a great job; she was brave and strong, and with her away, we focused on keeping a good position for the final. Aga and Tiff helped me, but we started a bit too early. We lost Maike in the chaos of the last kilometres, and then I had to invest too much energy. When the sprint started, I couldn’t put much power down. Tomorrow is another day, and the course suits us better than today, so I’m looking forward to it.”

HOW TO WATCH

Follow all the action of the Ford Ride London Classique on X with #RideLondon. The stages are broadcast on Eurosport.

Stage 2 | Saturday 25 May | Maldon – Maldon | 142.6km | Start 11:00BST | Broadcast: 13:15BST.

Stage 3 | Sunday 26 May | London – London | 91.2km | Start 15:30BST | Broadcast: 15:00BST.

Images: ©Ford RideLondon

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