An all-Dutch drag race to the finish line of stage 3 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift saw Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) edge out Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) during the first bunch sprint of the race in Montignac-Lascaux.
The pair led home the charging peloton which broke the heart of Julie van de Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) just 300 metres from the line, the Belgian having led the race solo for almost 60km.
As the race headed into the final kilometres, Van de Velde fought on valiantly with a 35-second gap, but it proved to be just a handful of seconds short as the sprint team lead-out trains swept her up within sight of the line.
Following the catch, a lead out from race leader Lotte Kopecky set up Wiebes to launch for the line. She went head-to-head on either side of the road with Vos, coming out on top at the finish for her ninth win of the year as Kopecky rounded out the podium just behind.
“Lotte did such a good job in the lead-out. I suffered in her wheel, but she brought me perfectly,” Wiebes said after her win.
“The breakaway was of course still gone with 1km to go. We took the [final] corner good. All the time I stayed with Lotte. The plan was that she would go and deliver me good and that’s exactly what she did. I felt Marianne start the sprint on the right of me and then I was able to catch her.
“We always believed in it. We felt it wasn’t really up to us to start the chase because we still have some hard days to go, and we don’t want to let the other girls go full out.
“It’s a great start. We are really happy with this and we hope to continue in this way.”
Van de Velde would end the day down in 36th place at two seconds down on the sprinters with a small gap opening up behind the top eight across the line. However, she could take some consolation in coming away with the polka dot jersey, having grabbed four points while out on the attack to overtake her teammate Yara Kastelijn.
Meanwhile, Kopecky, as a result of her third place and the two-second split behind, has extended her lead at the top of the general classification. The Belgian now enjoys a 55-second advantage over stage 2 winner Liane Lippert (Movistar) in second place, while Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep) remains in third, now at 1:05 down.
How it unfolded
The third stage of the Tour de France Femmes would feature five categorised climbs on the 147km road from Collonges-la-Rouge to Montignac-Lascaux, but unlike the opening two stages, the day would be all set for the first bunch sprint of the race.
Attacks flew from the start of the stage with 11 QOM points on offer throughout the stage, but despite a flurry of moves, Katrin Hammes (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) would be the solo breakaway rider, going clear after 4km of racing.
The German built her lead up to two minutes as she ploughed on alone, leading the way over the early climbs of the Côte du Peyroux and Côte du Pératel. Movement in the peloton on the latter and during the rolling roads afterwards saw Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) and Coryn Labecki (Jumbo-Visma) on the move, though everything was shut down by the peloton, leaving Hammes out front.
She raced over the Côte de L’Escurotte alone, too, taking her QOM total to seven points to put her second in the classification, but she’d be brought back with still a long way to go at the 82km mark.
With the break over, the attacks began again in the following kilometres as Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Alice Maria Arzuffi (Ceratizit-WNT), and Alena Amialiusik (UAE Team ADQ) were among the riders trying to get away.
Nothing came of the moves, though, at least not before Julie Van de Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) took a flyer 59km from the finish.
The Belgian quickly built a 30-second gap to the peloton, leading the way over the final climbs of the day – the Côte des Andrieux and Côte de Saint-Robert – to grab four QOM points and race into the polka dot jersey.
With 50km she was still racing on alone, a minute up on the peloton which had shut down brief moves from Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM).
From there, with sprinters teams including SD Worx, Team dsm-firmenich and Jumbo-Visma making the pace in the peloton, it would surely only be a matter of time before Van de Velde was reabsorbed to set up a bunch sprint.
However, the 30-year-old continued to battle on, taking a 1:30 advantage past the 25km to go mark, a gap which still held at 20 seconds heading into the final 10km. The catch looked inevitable, but Van de Velde kept fighting and managed to put more time between her and the peloton – 35 seconds heading into the closing 5km.
The sprint squads kept pushing too, eating away second by second and metre by metre, leaving Van de Velde just 10 seconds as he raced under the flamme rouge. The win still looked possible, but the peloton behind kept on closing in as the finish line neared.
Van de Velde held a small lead heading into the final 500 metres as Lidl-Trek and Jumbo-Visma took over the front. However, once yellow jersey Kopecky appeared at the head of the peloton, it spelled the end for the solo attacker.
The catch was made just 300 metres from the line, leaving Wiebes and Vos to launch off the front of the peloton to contest the victory in a sprint finish that at one point looked like it might not happen.
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