Spratt finished the stage 56 seconds behind Lorena Wiebes, who was the first over the line in a powerful sprint finish.
“I crashed the last time up the Champs-Élysées here, towards the Arc de Triomphe,” Spratt said in an interview with SBS Sport’s Gracie Elvin, her former teammate.
“So, not ideal. [I] spent the last part just chasing and trying to minimise losses,” she added, her experience showing as she immediately looked beyond the stage to the bigger picture of the next seven days.
“I’m not sure what actually happened in the final but, yeah, it was a pretty hard race from the start as we expected. A lot of excitement and a lot of attacks.
"Everyone’s going for the points jersey, and the mountains jersey, the yellow jersey, so yeah, big day out!”
Spratt now sits one minute and six seconds back on the general classification due to the 10-second time bonus awarded to the winner.
“I’m sure I hit a few heartrate PBs today, I was quite fresh!” Spratt said. “I just hope to ride into it and get better each day. Normally the first day is very chaotic and then it sort of settles down after that.”
Spratt, who has recently recovered from Covid-19, has had to shift her focus from the general classification to playing an important support role for her team, which includes sprinter Alex Manly who is targeting the points classification.
Manly won the general and points classification, as well as four stages at the Thüringen Ladies Tour in May, and came fourth overall in the UK Women’s Tour in June.
“I think Alex has shown in Thüringen and the Tour of Britain that she’s really just lifted a level this year,” Spratt said.
“She’s really showing what she can do now.”
Like many riders in the women’s peloton, optimism and emotions ran high for Spratt as the significance of racing in a multi-stage women’s Tour de France, along the iconic cobbles of the Champs-Élysées, hit home.
“It’s important to realise that we have had a women’s Tour de France before, many, many years ago,” Spratt said.
“I’m really grateful to the pioneers in our sport. There’s been a lot of hard work done to get this race back here. I honestly didn’t know if it was going to happen in my career."
“It’s amazing,” she added, fighting back tears.
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift continues with a sprint route across the French countryside to Provins. Watch Stage 2 from 10:15pm (AEST) on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker. The SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast starts at 10:30pm (AEST).
