Imogen Wolf (Visma-Lease a Bike), 18, took the primary skilled victory of her profession at stage 3 of the Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina, beating Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) and Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) in a moist dash end in Hervás.
After constructing a sufficiently big lead within the stage 1a time trial, Van Dijk’s third-place end meant she held onto the general lead and claimed the GC victory in Spain forward of Ottestad, who began the ultimate day of racing six seconds behind the Dutch veteran.
Ottestad completed second total, capping off an important three days of racing after already netting a stage win on Friday. Greta Marturano (UAE Team ADQ) took third on GC due to the time she gained by successful stage 1b.
The stage was resulting from be one for the climbers, with two class 1 climbs alongside the route, nevertheless, terrible moist climate within the Extremadura area in Western Spain meant the stage was shortened to only 69km with each of the climbs eliminated.
This allowed the likes of Van Dijk to contest the general, and with any would-be attackers stored in management by her teammates, she was in a position to take the primary GC win since coming back from giving beginning to her first little one in 2023.
“It wasn’t the simplest to manage as a result of there have been a lot of women who may nonetheless win the race and I did not have an enormous benefit so we needed to be tremendous sharp. The women have been going full gasoline and have been so spectacular,” mentioned Van Dijk.
“In the intermediate dash, we misplaced two seconds so it made it even tighter. On the final climb, the women did a full lead-out for me and I knew I needed to end it off.
“I’m tremendous completely satisfied I may win this GC, particularly to pay again all of the laborious work finished by the women. It was an important week right here with an important ambiance among the many staff. My focus was to win the time trial on stage 1a so to win the general is such a pleasant bonus. An awesome begin to the season so I’m very completely satisfied!”
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