Lorena Wiebes wins stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia Women
Only seven women contested the sprint after a late crash split the bunch. The race leader was caught behind that incident, but remains in the overall leader’s maglia rosa.
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won the third stage of the Giro d’Italia Women after a late crash split the peloton on the run into Trento.
Wiebes sprinted off the wheel of teammate and World Champion, Lotte Kopecky, to take the win from a seven-woman group which had survived a late crash. Josie Nelson (Picnic-PostNL) was second, equalling her best ever WorldTour finish, with Kopecky taking third place.
The stage was largely uneventful, but as the rain began to fall on the run into the finish in Trento, the roads became slick, and a number of roundabouts in the final made the course treacherous. With 2.5km to go, one of the Fenix-Deceuninck riders crashed from third wheel in the group, with around 15 others falling around her on the slick Tarmac.
Only seven women emerged from the chaos, with Austrian champion, Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) well off the front. Luckily for Wiebes, she had two teammates to chase the lead down, Barbara Guarischi making the catch and Kopecky doing the final lead out.
Overall race leader, Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) was caught behind the crash, crossing the line well behind the winner, however, she retains the maglia rosa by dint of the three-kilometre rule, which allows those affected by a crash to receive the same time as the group they were in.
“Actually, we were very lucky that we were in front at the roundabout when the crash happened and that we were still with three of us,” said Wiebes in her post-race interview. “Barbara did a great job to bring us to the corner, and Lotte did an amazing job. I was a bit scared for the last corner, I felt my wheels slipping a bit, but at the end I was able to save it.
“I would like more to go with a complete peloton to the finish, but that’s also part of racing, and you can expect it with the rain. The team did really good all day, and it’s good to finish it off also for them.”
How It Unfolded
With its fearsome, if lopsided profile, stage three’s route made it difficult to predict. The 122km day between Vezza d’Oglio and Trento began with the climb to the race’s highest point, the 1,883 Passo Tonale, which, at over 11km and 5.6% was an excellent warm-up.
However, the top came with more than 104km of the stage remaining, and the peloton seemed to sense the futility of attacking on the climb, the race staying largely together. Only as they approached the top did anyone manage to escape, climber and former Spanish road champion Usoa Ostalaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) briefly leading onto the descent.
A while later, with 74km of the day left, Nora Jenčušová (BePInk-Imatra-Bongioanni) attacked, and then, with the leader a minute up the road, Petra Zsankó (Ceratizit Pro Cycling) set off in pursuit.
While Zsankó struggled to catch the Slovak leader, the two solo escapees left the bunch only two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, stage one winner Marlen Reusser (Movistar) taking those in a hotly contested sprint against Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and maglia rosa, Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek).
Entering the final 40km, Jenčušová had been kept on a tight leash, her lead never more than 1:45. Meanwhile, Zsankó’s chase was a futile one, the Hungarian never getting within 40 seconds of the front of the race, and she was finally caught with 31km remaining, the gap to the leader dropping rapidly.
Less than 10km later, Jenčušová was back in the peloton, and a bunch sprint was on the cards, the pace increasing as the peloton approached Trento, while the GC teams of both Reusser and Longo Borghini hit the front. However, as the finish came ever closer, the sprinter’s teams also came to the fore as rain began to fall.
