Lorena Wiebes won another positive stage for the Worx team in the sprint

the dutch Lorraine Wiebes, The European cycling champion, won the third stage of the women’s Tour de France, where his team, Worx, dominated again, not only with the victory of the day but also by maintaining for the third consecutive day, and with a greater advantage, the lead with its other part, the Belgian Lotte Kopecky.

The Women’s Tour showed two characteristics of cycling this Wednesday: on the one hand, the precision in calculating when a team should increase the speed of the peloton to “launch” its best sprint specialist; and on the other hand the bitterness of a runner, the Belgian Julie VandeVelde, who made a great effort to win but found himself caught with less than 300 meters to go.

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The day, between Collonges la Rouge and Montignac-Lascaux, with almost 150 kilometers, is suitable for “treadmills” because, although there are five mountain passes, all the climbs are gentle and did not allow the climbers who opened a gap in the peloton; In addition, the last climb is very far from the goal.

So, the teams of the main candidates for the final victory let the others do the rest of the majority of the stage and escape attempts followed each other, all of them unsuccessful.

Until just over fifty kilometers from the finish line, the Belgian cyclist from the Fenix​​​​ teamJulie VandeVeldehe made a strong jump from the peloton and saw how the group leaders were unable to organize themselves to follow him.

Perhaps they did not trust that the Belgian cyclist would be consistent with his pedaling or, perhaps, they calculated when to start accelerating.

However, he started to open a gap, increase the gap and close to two and a half minutes with 30 kilometers left for the finish line.

Then the powerful teams like Jumbo, Canyon or Worx decided that the stage had to end in a sprint and they put the peloton in single file.

From then on the race was a spectacle of the fight of one cyclist against a whole group and even sometimes the differences quickly decreased (it remained at 23 seconds 10 kilometers), Van de Velde He made a last effort and managed to keep 32 seconds on the banner with 3 kilometers to go.

The Classifications

3rd stage

Collonges la Rouge-Montignac Lascaux, 147.2 kms
1. Lorena Wiebes (PB/SD Worx) 3h49’47”
2. Marianne Vos (PB/Jumbo-Visma) mt
3. Lotte Kopecky (BEL/SD Worx) mt
4. Chiara Consonni (ITA/UAE) mt
5. Elisa Balsamo (ITA/Lidl-Trek) mt
6. Alexandra Manly (AUS/Jayco-AlUla) mt
7. Charlotte Kool (PB/dsm) mt
8. Susanne Andersen (NOR/One-X) mt
9. Soraya Paladin (ITA/Canyon) and 2″.
10. Julie De Wilde (BEL/Fenix-Deceuninck) mt
….25. Mavi Garcia (ESP/Liv Racing) mt
….26. Annemiek van Vleuten (PB/Movistar Team) mt
Overall ranking
1. Lotte Kopecky (BEL/SD Worx) in 11:07:19
2. Liane Lippert (ALE/Movistar Team) at 55″.
3. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA/AG Insurance-Soudal Quick) at 1’05”
4. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (POL/Canyon) mt
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA/Lidl-Trek) mt
6. Annemiek van Vleuten (PB/Movistar Team) mt
7. Tamara Dronova-Balabolina (RUS/Israel-Premier Tech Roland) mt
8. Demi Vollering (PB/SD Worx) mt
9. Cecilie Ludwig (DIN/FDJ-Suez) mt
10. Amanda Spratt (AUS/Lidl-Trek) mt
…. 13. Ane Santesteban (ESP/Team Jayco-AlUla) in 1’09”
​…. 15. Mavi García (ESP/Liv Racing) at 1’13”

He reached the last kilometer with 10 seconds to spare and fought hard, but he soon felt the breath of the onrushing peloton, who overtook him in the last 200 meters, along with the overall leader, Lotte Kopecky like the great pitcher of Lorraine Wiebesto take the win.

The Dutchman achieved victory, with a time of 3.49:47, ahead of his compatriot Marianne Vos (Jumbo) and Kopecky, which adds 4 more bonus seconds; the Spaniards fighting to be in the top ten, mavi garcia (TeqFind) and Anne Santesteban (Jaico) arrived in the main group, two seconds behind, with the Movistar cyclists who aspire to the general, the German Liane Lippert and the Dutch Anemiek Van Vleuten.

After this stage the Belgian Lotte Kopecky (Worx) leads the general classification with a 55-second lead over Liane Lippert (Movistar) and 1:05 over seven other cyclists, including Van Vleuten.

This Wednesday, the fourth stage of the Tour is called to test, more than ever, the riders who will fight for the final victory, since the 177 kilometer route between Cahors and Rodez includes five ports, but the last three are in the last 43 kilometers and the last one has a summit nine from the finish line.