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Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) took her second consecutive stage victory within the Simac Ladies Tour, profitable stage 3 within the dash of a diminished group forward of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Lotte Kopecky who nonetheless completed third after main out Wiebes.
On the utterly flat terrain within the polders of Flevoland, the wind blew the peloton aside midway by means of the stage, splitting it into 4 teams. For a very long time, the hole between the entrance group of twenty-two and a chasing group of 24 riders fluctuated between 30 and 40 seconds, solely rising within the final 15km.
First Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) after which Franzi Koch (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) tried to get away within the ultimate 10km however had been each reeled in, organising a dash end.
Kopecky led out her teammate on the ending straight, and Wiebes launched her dash with about 150 metres to go. Balsamo tried to come back previous from her rear wheel however couldn’t match Wiebes for velocity and needed to accept second place. After her lead-out, Kopecky nonetheless held off Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) for third place.
Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) was a part of the primary group and defended her yellow jersey. However, she misplaced 4 seconds to the primary 5 riders on the stage and is now three seconds forward of Kopecky and eight seconds forward of Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) within the general classification heading into stage 4 on Friday.
How it unfolded
Starting and ending in Zeewolde, the 148.4km stage consisted of 1 massive loop round Flevoland adopted by a 20km ending circuit. With sturdy northwesterly winds and subsequent to no cowl on the reclaimed polder land, echelons had been probably.
After 73km, a 2.5km stretch with full-on crosswinds lastly broke the peloton aside. The first group consisted of twenty-two riders who shortly elevated their benefit on the teams behind. 62km from the end, the entrance group was half a minute up on the 24 chasers whereas the third and fourth teams had successfully given up, being respectively two and 4 minutes behind.
SD Worx-Protime had all seven of their riders within the entrance group whereas Lidl-Trek had been represented with Longo Borghini, Balsamo, Van Dijk, and Elynor Bäckstedt. Kool, Koch, Rachele Barbieri, and Megan Jastrab had been there for DSM-Firmenich PostNL, Liv-AlUla-Jayco had Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Silke Smulders whereas GC chief Bäckstedt, Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) had been with out teammates.
With tailwinds on the best way again in direction of the end, the 2 teams did a long-range pursuit, with neither facet actually getting the higher hand because the time hole assorted between 25 and 42 seconds. Lieke Nooijen and her Visma-Lease a Bike teammates who had missed the primary echelon acquired assist from Fenix-Deceuninck whereas SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek did a lot of the work within the entrance.
Crossing the end line with 20km to go, there have been 37 seconds in between, however the chase group misplaced time in the long run, ending 1:26 minutes down. This made Nooijen lose her second place in GC.
With the chase group at a protected distance, the combat for the stage victory started when Longo Borghini attacked with 10.2km to go, proper after Van Dijk had completed a flip on the entrance of the group. Wiebes and Kopecky themselves dedicated to chasing down the Italian champion who was lastly caught 8.8km from the road.
Koch then launched her transfer with seven kilometres to go, shortly getting a niche as Christine Majerus (SD Worx-Protime) jumped after her. Majerus acquired onto Koch’s wheel and refused to take turns whereas Van Dijk led the chase behind, and the assault was neutralised with 5.7km to go. Elynor Bäckstedt tried one other acceleration on the 5km mark however didn’t get away, and from there on, the dash preparations started.
Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) led Kopecky and Wiebes onto the ending straight the place Kopecky began an extended lead-out. Balsamo was lurking in Wiebes’ wheel whereas Kool was introduced up from behind by Barbieri. Wiebes launched her dash, and Balsamo got here out of her slipstream and tried to drag alongside however needed to sit down once more as she couldn’t make up floor, resigning herself to second place. Kopecky nonetheless had sufficient velocity to beat Kool to the road for third place, selecting up 4 bonus seconds.
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