Lorena Wiebes wins first bunch kick as Vollering crashes at Tour de France Femmes
The European champion took some of the pressure off her SD Worx-Protime squad, taking their first stage win of the race
Lorena Wiebes opened SD Worx-Protime’s account at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, winning the third stage of the race in Angers on Monday.
Wiebes’ team had worked on the front of the bunch all day, controlling a four-woman breakaway until the catch with 6km of the 163km stage to go. A large crash with just under 4km to go meant only a small group remained to contest the sprint, but Wiebes had World Champion Lotte Kopecky as her lead out and was dropped off at about 120m to go.
Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) was second with Ally Wollaston (FDJ-SUEZ) in third. While Vos lost the lead in the points classification to Wiebes, the bonus seconds she scored put her back in the overall leader’s yellow jersey, with six stages remaining.
Pre-race favourite Demi Vollering was one of those caught up in the crash, the Dutch rider clearly in pain as she picked herself up. Luckily, the sprint zone was at 5km, and those affected by the crash will be credited with the same time as the group they were in. For Vollering, it was the front group, so she lost no time to her rivals.
The stage was the first true sprint finish, and Wiebes was expected to win, having not been beaten in a bunch kick all year. The team has not been their usual, dominant selves, though, declaring a bid for the overall win was unlikely and stage wins would be their priority, so Monday's victory will relieve some of the pressure.
How it unfolded
Day three and, at 163.5km, the stage between La Gacilly and Angers was the second longest of the week. Not that the route was too testing, with a total of only 1,320m of climbing and the day’s only classified climb, the fourth category Côte de la Richardière, covering only 1.7km at an average of 4.8% was unlikely to cause too many problems.
It was warmer than the previous days, though, and despite stretches of exposed road, the wind was unlikely to be a problem; indeed, much of the final 100km had a light tailwind, giving the chance of a lightning-fast day.
With such a long stage, a breakaway was likely to be allowed a decent gap, so many riders were keen to get up the road, and there was a short but hard-fought fight to get away. Eventually, Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Sara Martín (Movistar), Clémence Latimier (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Catalina Soto Campos (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) got a small gap.
After 20km of racing, their advantage was out to 1.10, though Martín’s team mate, the hugely strong rouleur, Aude Biannic, was in pursuit. While she was soon caught, others were still determined to escape, with Franziska Brauße (Certizit), who had been one of the early attackers, trying her luck alongside Alison Avoine (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93).
Despite the two chasers’ efforts, they struggled to reach the front of the race, the leaders extending their advantage to 2.05. After a while where they remained closer to the peloton than the break, they slipped backwards into its clutches.
With 100km to go, the leading group’s advantage was close to four minutes, though SD Worx-Protime were monitoring the gap and had it down to 2.40 when the break rolled across the intermediate sprint with 39km remaining. That sprint saw the green jersey battle burn bright, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) beating Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) to take the most of the remaining points.
The ensuing kilometres brought narrow roads, a lift in pace, and by the time they reached the final 20km, the breakaway’s lead was under 50 seconds.. As they reached the final 10km with only 30 seconds’ lead, Martín attacked the group, dropping Latimier, before Jackson took her turn to move, the break starting to play games as the peloton closed in. In the end, Soto Campos, Martín and Jackson were together when they were caught with just under 6km remaining, the sprinters’ lead-out trains taking charge.
