Katarzyna Niewiadoma soloed to victory on the opening stage of the Women’s Tour to seize control of the battle for overall victory.

The 22-year-old Pole, among the pre-race favourites, broke clear with a little under 50km remaining of the 147.5km stage from Daventry to Kettering, and her rivals left it too late to respond.

It was a first win of the year for Niewiadoma, the Polish national champion, who is here as the race leader for the WM3 team despite the inclusion in the squad of the great Marianne Vos – winner of the inaugural Women’s Tour in 2014.

It was Vos who crossed the line in second place one minute and 46 seconds down, leading in the pack that contained the 2016 winner Lizzie Deignan (Boels-Dolmans) and the rest of the general classification hopefuls.

Alice Barnes (Drops) was the highest British finisher in seventh place, while the French rider Audrey Cordon-Ragot of the British team Wiggle High5 took the first Queen of the Mountains jersey by crossing the two main climbs of the day in first place.

After making her move Niewiadoma quickly pulled out a commanding lead, and it was allowed to grow to more than three minutes before the peloton got organised in their chase, with Boels-Dolmans taking the initiative.

But they were running out of road and, when Niewiadoma passed the 10km to go marker with more than two minutes in hand, it was clear where victory was going.

Thursday’s second stage, a 144.5km route around Stoke-on-Trent, contains a number of testing climbs and should help shape the general classification battle further before the sprinters can hope to have their chance in Leamington Spa on Saturday. The race will conclude on Sunday with a stage in London.

At the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Australian Richie Porte sent a warning to his Tour de France rivals by winning fourth stage, a 23.5km individual time trial, as Chris Froome struggled.

The BMC rider Porte clocked a best time of 28 minutes 7 seconds to beat the German Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) by 12 seconds and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) by 24.

The Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after the solo effort between La Tour du Pin and Bourgoin-Jallieu.

Team Sky’s Froome, the defending champion who tipped Porte as possibly his main rival for the Tour, produced a below-par performance as he finished 37 seconds off the pace.

However, results are hard to assess on the Dauphine as top riders usually use it as a Tour warm-up and try not to peak to soon ahead of the gruelling three-week race, which starts on 1 July.

Spain’s Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) was two seconds ahead of Froome, while last year’s Tour de France runner-up Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) lost almost two minutes.