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It was a drag race between Julie Van de Velde and the pack at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in Tuesday’s third stage.
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-ProTime) edged Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) crossing the line after the catch was made within sight of the line.
“Lotte did such a good job in the leadout. I actually already suffered on her wheel. She brought me perfectly,” Wiebes said. “The breakaway was, of course, still gone with 1 kilometer to go. We took the corner good. All the time I stayed with Lotte.
“The plan was that she would go and deliver me good, and that is exactly how she did. I think it was Marianne who started the sprint on the right of me, and I was able to catch her.
“We always believed in it. We felt it was not up to us to start the chase because we still have some hard days to go and we want to not let the other girls go full out,” Wiebes said. “DSM did that and we helped towards the end when we felt it was really necessary.”
Van de Velde of Fenix-Deceuninck was holding off the peloton but the sprinters didn’t want to miss their chance. The Belgian hit the red kite with a 10-second gap as the pack poured on the gas.
She ran out of steam as the catch was made in the closing two hundred meters as the sprinters swarmed her before the line.
Overnight leader Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) finished in the bunch to defend yellow.
How it played out: First chance for sprinters
After two lumpier days, stage 3 of the Tour de France Femmes was a more typical sprinter’s race. The 147.2km from Collonges-la-Rouge to Montigniac-Lascaux was rolling rather than grueling, with the early category 3 Côte du Peyroux (km. 27.2) being followed by a quartet of category 4 climbs. The last of those, the Côte de Saint-Robert, was located a full 55km from the finish.
The terrain was flatter from there, the action spiced up by an intermediate sprint 26km from the end.
Kathrin Hammes (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) went up the road very early on and took the points on the first climb. She had a lead of 2:05 after that summit and continued gathering points. Various riders tried and failed to get across to her, with American rider Coryn Labecki (Jumbo-Visma) gaining over a minute on the bunch but ultimately being unable to make the junction.
Hammes continued adding QOM points, taking the category 4 Côte du Pératel and Côte de L’Escurotte, moving to second overall in that classification. However that run ended with 80km remaining.
Van de Velde powers away
Multiple attempts were made to get clear, with Julie Van de Velde attacking on the Cat 4. Côte des Andrieux, with just over 60km remaining. She took the points there and on the Côte de Saint-Robert, which followed soon afterward, moving to the head of the mountains classification.
Behind, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) surged on the second of those hills and got clear, only to be hauled back in very soon afterward.
As a solo attacker against a peloton, Van de Velde wasn’t considered a major threat and was given a little leeway. However, she was riding strongly too, building a lead of over two minutes and taking the intermediate sprint well clear. Wiebes was best of the peloton there.
A crash behind took down Labecki and Elena Cecchini, with both riders remounting again and chasing.
DSM-Firmenich was angling for a bunch sprint and was riding hard behind to try to make that happen. That increase in pace sliced Vande Velde’s lead to 21 seconds, but she pushed back and had 34 seconds with 3km to go and 20 with 2km left.
That put things on a knife edge in terms of the stage outcome. She hammered on ahead of an increasingly frantic peloton and went under the kite with 9 seconds.
She was fully in view on the long finishing straight and was finally overhauled with about 200 meters to go. Wiebes and Vos went head to head on opposite sides of the road in the sprint, with the former proving best in the drag race to the line after what was a big leadout from teammate and ongoing race leader Lotte Kopecky.
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July 25, 2023 at 10:27PM
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Tour de France Femmes stage 3: Lorena Wiebes wins after break caught with 200m to go - Outside Magazine
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