Martina Fidanza (Ceratizit-WNT) was fastest in a bunch sprint to win stage 3 at the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour. The Italian beat runner-up Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) and third-placed Maggie Coles-Lyster (Roland) in Erfurt.
Opening stage winner and overall race leader Margot Vanpachtenbeke (VolkerWessels Women's Pro Cycling) maintained her GC lead heading into stage 4's 111km race in Mühlhausen on Friday.
Stage 3 of the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour was 144.6km in Erfurt. The circuit offered two short intermediate mountains at 54km and 117km before an otherwise flat run-in to the finish line.
Christine Majerus (SD Worx-Protime) and Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) opened a small gap after the first 20km of racing, but the pair were caught by the field with 75km to go.
Lisa Kromm (Maxx-Solar Rose Women Racing) was the only rider to make a counter-attack that resulted in a solo breakaway as she pushed her lead out to nearly two minutes.
UAE Team ADQ and EF Education-Cannondale did the bulk of the pace-setting at the front of the peloton causing the gap to drop to under a minute. With a more manageable distance, Justyna Czapla (Canyon-SRAM Racing) bridged across to Kromm and the pair pushed their lead back out to a minute.
SD Worx-Protime took matters into their own hands, setting a quick pace to shut down the breakaway with 35km to go. Mieke Kröger (Team Germany) was the next to attack, but she was brought with 20km to go.
A crash in the peloton with 19km to go saw Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek), Karoline Goldschmidt and Lena Reißner (both LKT Team) go down. Their respective teams have not yet released medical updates.
SD Worx-Protime, Ceratizit-WNT and Fenix-Deceuninck pulled the field into the final kilometres of the race, and it was Findanza who proved fastest to the line.
Results
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