Lorena Wiebes won stage 3 of the Tour of Britain Women, SD Worx-Protime's third straight victory in this year's race.
Led out by Lotte Kopecky in the green leader's jersey, Wiebes launched her sprint with 200 metres to go and pulled ahead. Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) challenged her but dropped her head in the final metres as Wiebes was a bike length ahead to take her team's third consecutive victory. Georgia Baker (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) finished third.
The stage had been dominated by a two-rider breakaway. Jo Tindley (Pro-Noctis-200° Coffee-Hargreaves Contracting) and Maddie Leech (Lifeplus-Wahoo) had attacked with 102km to go and built a gap of four minutes, but Leech suffered mechanical problems and had to drop back after the second QOM. Tindley continued on her own before being caught about 12km from the line.
After a late attack by Valerie Demey (VolkerWessels) was closed down, the sprint trains took over. SD Worx-Protime were in control, taking the lead onto the finishing straight and delivering Wiebes to victory.
Going into the final stage, Kopecky leads the GC with a 17-second buffer on Anna Henderson (Great Britain) and 32 seconds to Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco).
“The team did a really good job all day controlling the breakaway. We kept Christine [Majerus], Barbara [Guarischi], Lotte and me together for the final, and Christine delivered us really well through the corner in first position," Wiebes said after the podium ceremony.
"It was a really fast finish, and I was like, ‘oh, it’s only 200 metres to go’, so I started my sprint, and I was happy to deliver for the team. It's always nice to finish it off after the girls did so much work. There is one more day to go, so we go full for it again tomorrow."
How it unfolded
Starting and finishing in Warrington, stage 3 was short and also much flatter than the previous two days in Wales, but still included two third-category climbs on 106.8km.
Tindley and Leech formed a good break together and cooperated well. They extended their lead to four minutes with 70km to go and did not contest the QOM on Pexhill, with Leech rolling through first. Lucy Lee (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK) had attacked from the peloton and followed in third place before Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain) took the last point to bolster her lead in the QOM classification.
Emma Caitlin Dimbleby (Alba Development) also went on the chase after Pexhill. Leech had a mechanical problem and needed a bike change before returning to Tindley and leading the break over the QOM line atop Shrigley Road.
Tindley left Leech behind on the descent, and Leech dropped back to Lee and Dimbleby, but the three riders were reeled in by the peloton about 30km from the finish as SD Worx-Protime ramped up the chase.
The peloton was 40 seconds behind Tindley at the intermediate sprint in Mere where Paternoster sprinted to a two-second bonification, and although the gap went out to 50 seconds again, Tindley was within sight of the chasing bunch eventually.
Demey made her move just before Tindley was caught and quickly got a nine-second gap, but a jammed chain meant she was reeled in with 8km to go. The sprint trains competed for the best position on the run-in to Warrington, and although SD Worx-Protime dropped back from the front several times, Majerus could always rectify this with a small acceleration.
The Luxembourg champion then brought her team to the front through the last turn 700 metres from the line before leaving the lead-out to Guarischi. As Guarischi swung off, Paternoster drew level with Kopecky in her lead-out for Baker, and Wiebes then kicked just before the 200-metre mark with Kool on her wheel. Kool came alongside Wiebes at first but sat up in the last 50 metres as she could not come past, leaving Wiebes to win.
Results
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