For the second stage in a row a crash with 3 km to go disrupted the lead in to the finish, but this time it didn’t impact the sprint finish. Riejanne Markus piloted her Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Marianne Vos through the final kilometre and the GOAT had no competition sprinting to win the stage ahead of Charlotte Kool (DSM Firmenich-PostNL) and Olivia Baril (Movistar).
Race leader Blanka Vas of SD Worx-Protime scored two more bonus seconds on the road and will go into the fourth stage still in red one second ahead of Vos. Elisa Longo Borghini sits third overall a further 10 seconds down.
- Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale), Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Suez), and Sabrina Stultiens (VolkerWessels) did not start following stage 2’s crashes, and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) abandoned the race after 30 km.
- Mireia Benito attacked alone with 118 km to go and was not joined by any friends, despite a group attempting to bridge up to her. She would spend the whole stage on her own ahead of the peloton and at one point gained almost five minutes.
- Some riders struggled over the only categorized climb of the day but most, including Kool, were able to regain contact before the final 50 km. With 34 km to go Demi Vollering either got bored or decided to test her legs and put in a dig; she was immediately followed by Lidl-Trek.
- Benito was finally caught with 7.4 km to go as the peloton prepared for a sprint finish. A crash near the front of the peloton delayed a handful of riders with 3 km to go, but most of the big riders came through unscathed. Going into the final kilometre Markus set on the front of the peloton, a one-woman leadout for Vos.
- Once the other riders could smell the finish Liane Lippert moved past Vos, but Vos had no trouble moving onto the German national champion’s wheel and then off it to sprint to the line. Kool was just behind Vos but couldn’t match the Visma-Lease a Bike rider after 1,200+ meters of climbing.
Stage Top 10
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GC Top 10
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