Lorena Wiebes cemented her position as the fastest rider in the women’s peloton, taking stage 3 of the Giro Donne in a sprint ahead of Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) and Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM).
After a lead-out from teammate Barbara Guarischi, Wiebes had a clear run down the finishing straight, taking the victory by a bike length ahead of Vos, her third career Giro Donne stage.
“I am happy to be back here and happy to take another win, I really like to race Giro Donne, so I enjoy it here in Italy,” Wiebes said after the stage.
Asked whether she feels pressure to deliver on stages like Sunday’s, Wiebes said: “Towards the final, I always feel the pressure because I have to deliver for the team, because the girls worked really hard for me, so then I always want to win.”
They have had an unstoppable season so far but SD Worx lost time in the GC on the first test of the race on stage two after Niamh Fisher Black finished 2:59 down on new race leader Annemiek van Vleuten.
In the absence of three of their biggest names, Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky, and Marlen Reusser, SD Worx went into the Giro with “multiple goals” and a younger GC team, including Fisher-Black and Anna Shackley alongside Wiebes and her main lead-out rider, Guarischi.
The European champion had a stage win marked out as a target ahead of the race, saying via a team press release: “I have good experiences with the Giro Donne. I already won two stages in 2021, I like the atmosphere and the food is good. I'm going to Italy with a lot of motivation. I am aiming for stage wins. Even the prologue is already a goal of mine, although especially Sunday and Monday's stage are marked in red. That is where the chances for a sprint are highest. I get a lot of confidence from the Dutch championships. The legs were good."
With the first of those two targets ticked off already, Wiebes will look ahead to stage four and another sprint finish into Borgo Val di Toro. Beyond that, Wiebes is looking ahead to her second Tour de France Femmes as well as the world and European championships.
"My first six months at Team SD Worx are over and I like it a lot. It almost feels like I've been here longer. I’ve already made a lot of progress with this team and am already looking forward to the rest of the season,” she said. “With the Tour, hopefully the World Championship and the European Championship coming up, there are still important goals for me. I therefore need this Giro, combined with a training block, to be ready for what is yet to come."
