At the sign-in for Stage 1 of Saffron Walden's RideLondon Classique, Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) wore the red and white jersey of the Danish National Champion. The 23-year-old will wear another jersey on stage 2, but she entered the breakaway and won all 3 QOM sprints, wearing orange and blue QOM jerseys.

"We wanted to have an aggressive race and be on the front line with at least one rider. Fortunately, I was the one who had to run away. I was really looking forward to getting into a real breakaway, and today I was successful, so I'm really happy," Koerner said in a post-stage interview

she and Lea Lin Teutenberg (Ceratizit-WNT) fled very quickly on the 159.2km stage, splitting the points of QOM and sprint between themselves. He shared the workload in a 140km ride and was caught at 16.5km.

"It would have been better for more people to be there, but the two of us worked together well and had a good day together. In the end, I managed to get what I came from, I'm happy about it," Koerner said about her days before the Essex Road pack

Dane is another lateral entrant to women's cycling: in her youth she practiced high diving and at the age of 18 she started 3 Dane races. Mark Championship

But after injuring her hips and back when she collapsed badly in a diving pool, she switched to road cycling and bought her first race bike in 2019.

Koerner spent the next 2 seasons at the famous Copenhagen cycling club ABC (Arbejdernes Bicycle Club). In 2021, the randers Bike Week stage and 6 national victories in red, white and blue kits, including GC, were selected for the World Championship.

In 2022, Koerner signed with his current team, the Uno-X Pro Cycling team, and in 2023 he won the Danish Road Championship from an early departure and finished with a solo of 32km.

Ahead of Saturday, Koerner is hoping to defend her new orange and blue jersey.

"It's nice to keep the jersey after tomorrow, but we have to see how the stage goes tomorrow," she said.

There is no Qom on the final stage in central London, and Stage 2 has the same number of Qom as Stage 1. This means that, even if someone wins all the QOMs in Stage 2, they can at best play the gc position as a tiebreaker in the same draw as Koerner. Kerner lost 20 seconds on the uphill finish at Colchester, 54th overall, 22 seconds behind stage winner Lorena Weaves (SD Worx-Protime), and could drop to a bonus second in the mid-sprint at London. But if Keener can snatch only 2 QOM points in stage 1, she will only have to finish the race to win the orange jersey.