The seemingly invincible sprinting machine that is Lorena Wiebes rolled into Hay-on-Wye on Saturday afternoon, once again crossing the line first at the Tour of Britain Women for her third triumph in four days.
Wiebes prevailed from a lead group of 28 in the book town on the Wales-England border, outpacing her two podium rivals, Liane Lippert and race leader Kim Le Court-Pienaar, at the end of another challenging stage in the hills.
Wiebes survived a host of GC attacks over the final categorised climbs of the 138km stage, a trek through mid-Wales which featured nearly 2,000 metres of elevation.
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Of course, Wiebes has excelled on tough terrain before, having finished sixth at Amstel Gold Race last spring and won that uphill finish on the opening day of the Tour de France Femmes in Lausanne. This week, too, there was an impressive ride up to the hilltop finish in Llandudno at The Great Orme, where she shed just 37 seconds to premier puncheur Le Court-Pienaar.
Is she evolving into a sprinter-puncheur with an eye on the Ardennes, then?
"I think not Liège, but Amstel Gold Race I would say yes, because also it's where I live at the moment. It's on my training roads, so it will become more and more a goal," Wiebes told Cyclingnews after the finish.
"But I think year by year, it will become also harder to win Amstel because the whole peloton is improving and growing. But of course, I want to develop myself more in the hills and keep the sprint also, because if you see next year's Tour de France here in Britain, then it will be a tough one, so you will need it."
Wiebes has grown stronger in the hills year on year, balancing that improvement with keeping her top-end sprint power.
"I think we are on the right path in that way. I think we really try to do it step-by-step, and that's also important to not lose the sprint too much," she said.
"So I think we're really in a good way. And I mean, also it's helpful that the team is helping with that, and like they trigger me also to become better."
Wiebes will have another chance at victory on Sunday's finale in Leamington Spa, and on the largely flat stage, she's the overwhelming favourite. Stage win number four, along with Lippert finishing lower than third, would see her jump to a second overall on the final GC.
The overall title is out of sight though, with Le Court-Pienaar holding a 35-second lead.
"Tomorrow it's another day of hard working, because I hope to pass Liane on GC to get into second place, of course.
"But it's already a successful Tour of Britain for us with three stage wins, and of course we aim for the GC podium now. The win is out of sight for GC, but we keep on fighting and try to go for another stage win tomorrow."
With all this talk of winning, does she ever think about her future legacy and chasing records? Still only 27, Wiebes is now on 136, well short of Marianne Vos' 259. It looks like an unbreakable record, but given Wiebes' current win rate, who knows?
"I think that will be really hard to chase Marianne, because she's still racing also!" she said.
"No, I'm not really into that, but I mean, we want to win as much as possible, and hopefully I can keep it up for a few more years."
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