Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) has cemented her position as the best sprinter in the women's peloton, winning all three stages and the GC of the RideLondon Classique.
On The Mall in London, Wiebes was led out by her teammate, world champion Lotte Kopecky, for the victory. Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) finished second and Kopecky took third, a repeat of Saturday's podium.
Kool also finished runner-up in the general classification, 25 seconds behind Wiebes. A further second behind, Kopecky rounded out the top three, pushing Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) into fourth on stage placing count back.
“It’s nice to also win on a totally flat stage. I enjoyed the city centre, and the team did a really good job of keeping us safe all day,” said Wiebes after the finish.
On the third of eight laps around central London, Wiebes’ teammate Barbara Guarischi went down in a crash.
“I think her bike touched my rear wheel, so I’m happy that I escaped the crash. But luckily, she came back to the peloton, and for the rest, we were safe all day,” Wiebes explained.
The Dutch sprint star continues to be unbeaten in the RideLondon Classique, having won the one-day race in 2019 and all three stages in both 2022 and 2024.
“It's always hard to try the same again, and hat-tricks are always hard to do, but I’m really happy to be unbeatable in RideLondon and I will enjoy this. I really want to thank my teammates for all the work they did the last three days,” Wiebes finished.
How it unfolded
The peloton stayed together for the first two laps of the 11.5km circuit, but early on the third lap, Guarischi lost control of her bike and crashed, taking down seven other riders. While Martina Fidanza, Cédrine Kerbaol, Kathrin Schweinberger (all Ceratizit-WNT), Elinor Barker, Maria Giulia Confalonieri (both Uno-X Mobility), and Maaike Boogaard (AG Insurance-Soudal) quickly got back on their bikes, Lisa van Helvoirt (VolkerWessels) had to abandon the race.
At the end of the third lap, Paternoster won the first intermediate sprint ahead of Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek) and Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT). The three-second time bonification put Paternoster into second place overall, two seconds ahead of Kopecky, with Copponi and Lach also moving up in the GC.
On the fourth lap, an attack by Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health) did not get away, neither did the counter from Fleur Moors (Lidl-Trek), so the peloton went through the halfway point together.
45km from the line, Kaja Rysz (Lifeplus-Wahoo) made her move, and the Polish rider quickly opened a ten-second gap. Scarlett Souren (VolkerWessels) bridged across, and together they increased their advantage to 47 seconds with 30km to go.
Angela Oro (BePink-Bongioanni) was chasing in between but never made it to the front and was eventually reabsorbed by the peloton. With the second intermediate sprint coming up at the end of the sixth lap, the sprinters’ teams reduced the gap to the two escapees, catching them towards the end of the lap. Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal) took three bonus seconds ahead of Paternoster and Copponi, moving them all up in GC.
Copponi then suffered a mechanical on the penultimate lap. She changed her bike but was back in the peloton by the time the bell rung in the final lap. On the last lap, Paternoster also had a mechanical, rejoining the peloton with 8.5km to go.
Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed with 6.5km to go, somersaulting over a traffic cone, but she was able to finish the race.
Guarischi led the peloton onto The Mall, and Kopecky launched her lead-out from sixth position at the 250-metre mark. Kool went into the wind to follow the world champion and could pass her on the final metres – but she was three bike lengths behind Wiebes who won her third stage in as many days.
On top of three stages and the GC, Wiebes also takes home the points jersey while Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) won the QOM jersey and Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) won the white jersey for the best U23 rider. Lizzie Deignan was the best-placed British rider in 18th place overall, and Ceratizit-WNT won the team classification.
Results
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