A collective demonstration and the double at the end for Lorena Wiebes ! On paper very innocuous and promised to be a new massive sprint, the 3rd stage of the Simac Ladies Tour finally offered a great spectacle this Thursday throughout the 148.4 km traced around the town of Zeewolde, due to the strong wind which swept these flat and very exposed roads. Ideal conditions for an exciting day focused on the borders, with a beautiful and long game of cranks initiated by the runners of the Team SD Worx – Protime more than 75 miles from the finish!
Video – Lorena Wiebes won again in front of Elisa Balsamo
Kopecky gets closer to BäckstedtCordon-Ragot in the top 10
Under their leadership, a group of 22 units including the entire Dutch team as well as the main favorites broke away and managed to keep a second group of pursuers who ended up giving up in the finale. A superb mano a mano which was concluded by a masterclass from the best training in the world, which logically took advantage of its numerical superiority to put its in-house sprinter into orbit in the final package. Perfectly thrown by the world champion herself Lotte Kopeckythe European champion, unlike the day before, easily won her duel with the Italian Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) to achieve the double and their 21st victory of the season. The wearer of the rainbow jersey extended her effort to get on the podium of the day and thus pocket some bonuses. The top 5 is completed by the duo Charlotte Kool – Rachele Barbieri of Team dsm-company PostNL.
Well present in this leading group, Zoe Backstedt (Canyon // SRAM Racing) crossed the line in 14th position but still lost four seconds out of the first five following a break in the sprint. At the head of the general since her victory in the inaugural time trial, the Briton retains her leadership tunic but sees a return Lotte Kopecky just 3 seconds away. Behind, the top 10 is logically turned upside down, 2nd overall Lieke Nooijen (Visma | Lease a Bike) being notably the big loser of the day after arriving at 1’26” in the second group. Note that for the last race of his career, Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health) moved up to 10th place overall after maneuvering well all day in the borders.
