Kimberly Lecourt Pienaar strikes again after Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and outsprints Faulkner after long attack

The British four-day race once again featured some big names this year. SD Worx-Protime had Lorena Wiebes, Femke Markus, and Marta Lech at the start. Picnic PostNL had brought Charlotte Kool, with Chiara Consonni and Ally Wollaston, two more very fast women at the start. Lecourt Pienaar, the winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, was also at the start.

The first stage between Dalby Forest and Redcar was 81.5 kilometers long and featured two climbs. The climb to Blakey Ridge, with its length of 5.6 kilometers and average gradient of 4.2%, was not overly challenging, nor was the climb to Langburn's Bank (2.3 kilometers at 5.6%).

Perhaps it was due to the rain, but very few riders tried to attack. Dominika Wlodarczyk of UAE Team ADQ made a brief attempt to be the first to reach the top of the first climb, but it was Dutch rider Anouska Koster of Uno-X who succeeded.

With a completely intact peloton, we headed for the second climb of the day, where the race would really ignite. Lecourt Pienaar attacked on the first ascending sections, followed by Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) from Mauritius and Kristen Faulkner (EF).

Henderson eventually had to let the two leaders go and fell back into the chasing group of about twenty riders. Meanwhile, Pienaar and Faulkner gradually extended their lead to half a minute with 25 kilometers to go.

However, the breakaway group's lead quickly diminished to about twenty seconds, as the pace in the chasing group was significantly increased. The two leaders managed to defend their lead for a while, though, as with fifteen kilometers to go, the difference was still twenty seconds.

With ten kilometers to go, the lead even increased to half a minute, and it looked like it would be a real battle for seconds. In the final kilometers, the pressure mounted: the lead steadily decreased, but with two kilometers to go, the front runners still had twenty seconds left. In a head-to-head sprint, Pienaar ultimately proved the strongest, meaning she will start tomorrow in the leader's jersey.