Tour de Yorkshire: Wild finish to Stage 1 of women's race
Parkinson, 20, from Dewsbury finished eighth in a blazing sprint finish at the end of a 132.5km leg from Beverley.
Wild, who also won when the then one-day race finished in Doncaster two years ago, will wear the leaders’ blue jersey on tomorrow’s decisive stage from Barnsley to a summit finale at Ilkley’s Cow and Calf.
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Hide AdParkinson’s Trek-Drops team-mate Anna Christian was in a breakaway and claimed the day’s grey jersey as most active rider, which is decided by a fans’ vote.
Pfeiffer Georgi, of Yorkshire-based Jadan-Weldtite Vive Le Velo, was the day’s leading climber.
A mix-up at a roundabout in the closing stages of the race caused confusion among some of the sprinters’ teams, and Parkinson said: “It was a really hectic finish.
“There was a bit of an incident with a load of cones so it was quite hard to stay organised, but it was a pretty decent result. I was trying to help out Lucy [Shaw] who was our designated sprinter, but we got separated a bit going into the finish, so I kept on going and I am pretty happy with it.”
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Hide AdTomorrow’s stage, which passes through Castleford and Harewood, features three classified climbs and Parkinson predicted: “It will be really hard. I’ve done a recon’ of the course and it’s up and down from the word go really.
“I think it will be a reduced bunch going into the final two climbs and it’ll be totally different [to today].
“I’ll see where my climbing legs are during the stage. I hope I do have good legs and Anna got most aggressive rider and she’s an epic climber as well so we’ve got a couple of options.”
Big crowds turned out today, despite an early start for the women and Parkinson added: “I love it racing in Yorkshire, the crowds are epic and it’s really nice to hear your name being shouted at the side of the road.
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Hide Ad“It was kind of cool Anna being off the front because I get so excited about being on home roads I want to go off and ride, but it kind of held me back and I was sat in the peloton a bit more, which was probably best.”