Stage One winner Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx – Protime)
“I am really happy to finish the teamwork off. The girls worked really hard for it today, so we had to finish it off.
“The teamwork was really important because Femke Markus and Christine Majerus they controlled the breakaway all day long, it is really important to have them in a race like this and also in a team. Then it was up to us to have a good lead-out and then Barbara Guarischi and Lotte Kopecky took over in the final straight and they delivered perfectly.
“It is really important to time your sprint well on this type of finish and the girls did really well to lift me at the right point so I could open my sprint at a good moment.
On when she sensed victory:
“When Barbara took over and started her lead-out I had a feeling this could be good because she timed it really good.”
Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) will wear the Queen of the Mountains jersey after winning a maximum nine points in the competition during today's stage.
“I would have hoped to have more riders up there, but either way we got into a really good corroboration and we had a nice day out!
“I managed to get the QoM points so I’m really happy about that.”
On Stage Two tomorrow:
“We will have to see who is keen to go for the QoM points tomorrow.
“For someone to get more points than I have they would have to win all of the QoM points tomorrow, so I think my chances are pretty good, but we will to see how it turns out tomorrow!”
Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) returned to reclaim her Best Young Rider jersey, which she also took home in 2023.
“I’m happy to wear this! It’s the last year for me in the young version, so I’m happy!”
On Stage Two tomorrow:
“Tomorrow will be an interesting day. There will be more movement, so let’s see. We are ready! Let’s fight.”
Pre-race quotes
2023 Ford RideLondon Classique champion Charlotte Kool is gearing up to defend her title, riding for DSM Firmenich-Postal.
On the Classique:
“It’s a really exciting course. It’s not easy at all, we need the whole team, and that’s exciting. It showed last year it’s not easy to win here, but we have the team over here to manage that, and have a lot of fun.”
Biggest contenders today?
“If you look at sprints, we have [Lorena] Wiebes, [Chiara] Consonni, maybe [Clara] Copponi. Many riders. There are a lot of possibilities.”
British star Lizzie Deignan is back racing for Lidl-Trek after a lay-off due to injury, and is looking forward to three days of exciting competition.
On her preparation for this year's Classique:
“Good warm up! Ready for the stage. I think it’s going to be a hard start with a sprint after eight kilometres. It is a bit mean of the organisers, but it will be good!”
On recovering from the broken arm sustained at the Tour of Flanders at the end of March:
“My arm is OK. It’s my first real race where I’ll be sprinting and using it a lot, but I think it’s OK.”
On Stage One:
“It’s one of the longest races we would have on the calendar. Also, they’ve put the bonus seconds on the climbs, and not the sprints, so that will make it more interesting.”
Biggest contenders?
“Definitely Team SD Worx - Protime. I mean they have two of the fastest [riders] in the world.
“Then you’ve got Charlotte Kool in at DSM Firmenich-Postal. She’s also backed up by Georgi Pfeiffer who is super strong.
“Then the underdogs, who people aren’t thinking about, you’ve got Liv AlUla Jayco they’ve got Georgia Baker, she is super fast. There are a couple of underdogs too who could surprise, I think.”