With no separate time trial in the 2019 event and no hilly stages of the same difficulty as in recent years, the time difference created in the opening prologue of the Boels Ladies Tour could be important for the overall class.

Annemiek van Fluten (Mitchelton-Scott) won the prologue, but later said that she and her team would not be actively defending the leader's jersey and would instead be looking for stage wins throughout the week. This is good news for the riders right behind Van Vleuten, who is the overall winner in 2017 and 2018 but professed to be uninterested in competing for the overall and will be eager to step up. Lisa Klein (Canyon-SRAM) was only 6 seconds slower than Van Vleuten. The German time trial champion is also an excellent sprinter and could earn bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint and sprint finish of the next stage to close the gap to Van Vleuten and take the overall lead. Klein's teammates Alice and Hannah Burns, as well as Katarzyna Nieviadoma, also rode well on day one and are within 18 seconds of the lead. Team Sunweb went into the race with plans to have Leah Kirchmann as their main GC Hope, but Lucinda Brand was the team's best finisher in the prologue, in third place. The technical layout of the prologue was an advantage for Brand, who is used to this type of course layout, having raced cyclo-cross. I always think that on a course like this with so many corners, there must be places where I can go faster," he said. I got a good start, but it's still a close race and tomorrow could be completely different," Brand said. Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) started well as the European time trial champion, aiming to make the GC in the prologue. However, as they rounded a cobblestone section on a small hill, van Dijk's chain came off the front chainring, she lost control of her bike, and fell off. 1 minute and 48 seconds lost ended van Dijk's GC ambitions. Van Dijk's teammate Letizia Paternoster did well to finish fourth, nine seconds behind van Hulten, surprising even sport director Ina-Joko Teutenberg. We didn't necessarily expect her to do as well as she did, but we all know Letizia is capable of that. She has been very busy this season with the track program. She has been on the road a lot lately, and today she showed even more of that strength." Lisa Brennauer (WNT-Roter) was fifth, tied with Paternoster in time. She will be supporting teammate Kirsten Wild on the flat stages to come, but the German road race champion is well positioned to challenge for GC on the hilly stages. The same goes for Boels Dolmans, who has four in the top 11. Anna van der Breggen, Christine Majerus, Amy Peters, and Chantal Black have a time difference of between 9 and 11 seconds, so the teams will have a multifaceted strategy in this race sponsored by the teams' main sponsor. Finally, Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) exceeded expectations with 12th place, just 13 seconds behind Van Hulten. Stage 1 is flat, with an intermediate sprint with time bonuses, and will likely end in a group sprint.