Charlotte Becker (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung) (Image credit: WomensCycling.net)
Charlotte Becker of Equipe Nürnberger took "the biggest success on the road" in her career by taking over the lead in the Holland Ladies Tour from Kirsten Wild (AA-Drink Cycling Team) after stage three. A fifth place finish was enough to give her the overall lead. Anke Wichmann of Columbia won the stage ahead of Cervelo Lifeforce's Sarah Düster.
"That's a huge deal," said Jens Zemke, Equipe's Directeur Sportif. "This race is very important to the Dutch racers and being able to do something like this in such a very strong start field is really a sensation."
With 50 km to go in the 113km stage, a six rider strong group including Becker, 25. The group was able to stay away until the end, when Wichmann and Düster were able to pull away and win by five seconds. Columbia's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg led the peloton over the finish line 1.46 minutes later.
Becker now leads by 52 seconds over Irene den Broeck (AA Drink) and 1.04 over Iris Slappendel (Flexpoint).
"On the road this is surely Lotte's biggest success, simply something enormous," Zemke said. "She has a strong team behind her, which she can rely on. Now of course we want to defend the jersey, since the others already have a pretty big gap because of the time trial. We will do everything we can to support Lotte."
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