Letizia Paternoster went agonisingly close to a huge WorldTour stage victory as the opening stage of the Tour of Britain came down to a tense photo finish with World Champion Lotte Kopecky in Llandudno.
The Italian showed she was in fine form once again as she made it into the decisive break of the day alongside teammate Ruby Roseman-Gannon over the second of the two categorised climbs.
The nine escapees worked well to establish a sizeable gap on the peloton, with Paternoster then snatching the maximum bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint with 20km remaining.
With two cards to play in the final, Liv AlUla Jayco played to their strengths as Roseman-Gannon covered the attacks, while Paternoster sat tight for a sprint finish.
In the end, the day came down to a fierce dash for the line with Paternoster denied the victory by the smallest of margins, but heads into stage two with extra fire in her belly and only three seconds down on the GC lead.
Letizia Paternoster:
“I’m honestly a bit disappointed because we were so close and in one moment after the finish line I thought I had won.
The team worked really, really good today, we created the breakaway on the climb, we took the climb super-fast and strong, then we continued with me and Ruby. But all the girls worked well and did really good all day, so I am really proud of this team.
We are so close to the victory and now I just want to believe in tomorrow and to give everything to take a win for the team. Me and the girls really believe in it and we will try our best.”
2024 Tour of Britain – Stage 1:
- Lotte Kopecky 4:04:18
- Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) ST
- Georgie Pfeiffer ST
2024 Tour of Britain – GC:
- Lotte Kopecky 4:04:06
- Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) +0:03
- Georgie Pfeiffer +0:07
