Lorena Wiebes dominates sprint again on Stage 3 at Women’s Tour to take overall lead

Despite a bunch sprint at times being far from a foregone conclusion, Lorena Wiebes (DSM) displayed complete confidence in herself and her team-mates to claim a second win in as many days on Stage 3 at the Women’s Tour in Gloucester. Astonishing leg speed and 10 bonus seconds on the line also carried her into the race lead ahead of a heavy day of climbing in Wales.

Before that, and after two stages in the gently undulating lowlands of the South East, the race headed for the somewhat lumpier West of England.

Beginning in the mediaeval town of Tewkesbury it was a 109km course of two halves – relatively relaxed roads followed by a series of heavy and challenging hills.

Riejanne Markus of Jumbo-Visma was the rider to take the initiative in the early stages. Markus, winner of a stage of the Tour of Norway last summer, rode clear eight kilometres out from the official start.

From the unthreatening position of 92nd in the general classification and four minutes behind the leaders, the 27 year-old posed little threat to the overall and was all but assured of being given reasonable room to ride. Markus made it to the first sprint and KOM waypoints of the stage alone.

More dangerous was the move from the QOM competitors, Christine Majerus (SD Worx) and Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo) who used Worrall Hill as a springboard to slip away from the bunch. The pair shared the bonus seconds and points on offer at the intermediate sprint 2.5km later.

With 50km of the stage and one categorised climb remaining, Majerus and Verhulst had made it three up front. They held a lead of almost a minute over the peloton by the bottom of Speech House, which was where Verhulst began to lose contact with her colleagues.

Canyon-SRAM made the climb as hard as they could, investing their efforts in dropping Wiebes from the bunch and making the finish, at the very least, a reduced bunch sprint.

Verhulst was soon swept up, while the remaining riders’ days were effectively done by the official summit of the climb, which only Markus was able to take anything from. The unclassified kilometres that followed were where the real damage was done. Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), overall winner in 2017, drove on, as one after another riders were spat from the back of the main group.

Onto the high speed descent into Westbury-on-Severn the rain began to fall.

As the final intermediate sprint neared a group of 16 riders emerged at the front with a meaningful lead. Disorganised but with incentives to make the move stick, the presence of riders from Canyon-SRAM increased their chances of keeping the chasers at bay.

As they went through 10km to go, what cohesion there had been began to break down. The larger group behind, containing Wiebes and her DSM team-mates, soon caught sight of them and shortly after made contact.

Some 5km remaining and with only one rider likely to win the sprint, still a bunch finish was far from certain. 3000m later and the teams seemed resigned to it. On the wide, sweeping roads of Gloucestershire they organised themselves around their fastwomen with Wiebes, on the wheel of wingwoman Pfeiffer Georgi, never far from the front of the field.

At the 200m marker, as Alex Manley (BikeExchange-Jayco) pulled alongside on her left, Wiebes manoeuvred herself to the right and launched her sprint. Another clear and comfortable victory for the Dutch rider, with Manley in second and Coryn Labecki (Jumbo-Visma) in third.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION TOP TEN

1. Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) +8:50:27s
2. Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) +0:13s
3. Alexandra Manley (BikeExchange Jayco) “
4. Elena Cecchini (Team SD Worx) +0:14s
5. Shari Bossuyt (Canyon/SRAM Racing) +0:16s
6. Coryn Labecki (Jumbo Visma) “
7. Elise Chabbey (Canyon-Sram) +0:17s
8. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling) +0:18s
9. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team SD Worx) “
10. Christine Majerus (Team SD Worx) “