Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won her third stage in four days, taking the victory on stage 5 of the Simac Ladies Tour in Doetinchem. In a sprint that was marred by a crash on the final kilometre, Wiebes outsprinted Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Audrey De Keersmaeker (Lotto-Dstny) had animated the stage with a solo of more than 70km, but the Belgian was caught 14km from the finish in Doetinchem.
Despite almost continuous attacks in the final, the stage then came down to a sprint where Wiebes was the fastest.
Yellow jersey Franziska Koch just escaped the crash and keeps the overall lead going into Sunday's final stage.
As her teammate Lotte Kopecky was one of the crashed riders, Wiebes had mixed feelings after her victory.
“I heard the crash, and Lotte said right away on the radio that she was on the ground. That really sucks. It was a really dangerous final with all the traffic islands, and when the peloton goes from left to right, you have to pay very close attention. A crash happens fast in that situation,” said Wiebes.
“I did get out of position a little bit, but then I found my way back. I started my sprint quite early, but it was enough,” she continued.
Kopecky’s crash ruined SD Worx-Protime’s plan for the sprint where the team wanted to get bonus seconds for the world champion in order to move her up in GC.
“Lotte should have been sitting on my wheel, and we would both sprint. Now we’ll have to see how she is, and tomorrow is a new day,” finished Wiebes.
How it unfolded
On the 140km stage, the peloton stayed together until De Keersmaeker went solo with over 85km to go. The 25-year-old Belgian quickly built a gap of over a minute, and with 60km to go she was 2:45 minutes ahead.
Previously a cyclocross rider, De Keersmaeker switched her focus to road cycling in 2023 and signed for Lotto-Dstny for 2024. At the Tour de France Femmes, she won the stage 2 combativity prize with a solo breakaway, and her exploits around Doetinchem would earn her the combativity prize and red jersey again.
The peloton sprang into action 55km from the line – not by picking up the chase but by launching attack after attack. Visma-Lease a Bike and Liv-AlUla-Jayco were the most active while other teams also joined in. SD Worx-Protime had their hands full covering all the moves, but none of the attacks lasted long as they were either caught quickly or there was no cooperation if five or six riders (often with an SD Worx-Protime rider among them) got a small gap.
The higher speed reduced De Keersmaeker’s advantage to only 18 seconds with 41km to go, but the Belgian steadfastly kept going, increasing her gap to over 30 seconds again. Linda Riedmann (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked with 15km to go and finally bridged to De Keersmaekers; both were reeled in a kilometre later.
This set off another flurry of attacks with almost every Visma-Lease a Bike rider as well as Quinty Ton and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (both Liv-AlUla-Jayco) having a try, but none of these moves lasted long, and when SD Worx-Protime amassed at the front of the peloton six kilometres from the finish, the stage was set for a sprint.
The sprint trains manoeuvred for the best positions going into the final kilometre where a touch of wheels brought down Kopecky and Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), also causing Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ), Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility), Julie De Wilde, and Marthe Truyen (both Fenix-Deceuninck) to go down. Kool had to abandon while the others could finish the race, albeit with torn kit and abrasions.
In the somewhat chaotic sprint, Rachele Barbieri (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) went early down the right-hand side of the road with Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) and Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal) on her wheel. Led out by Barbara Guarischi, Wiebes launched her sprint on the left side of the finishing straight and passed Barbieri. Balsamo came out of Wiebes’ slipstream on the final metres but could not pass her, and Wiebes raised her hands on the line.
Results
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