There was no stopping Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels Cycling), who crashed as part of the day's decisive breakaway but went on to take the stage 3 victory at the CIC-Tour Féminin des Pyrénées in Jurançon.
The Dutch rider was part of the day's 10-rider breakaway but surged in the closing kilometres, and was followed by Léa Curinier (FDJ United-SUEZ). The pair entered a two-way sprint that saw Jansen take the day's win.
The successful breakaway crossed the line roughly 49 seconds ahead of the main field, their efforts not affecting the top spot in the overall classification, with Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) taking the overall victory at the CIC-Tour Féminin des Pyrénées.
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It was a 1-2 overall finish for UAE Team ADQ, with Dominika Włodarczyk taking second place in the standings at 1:57 back, while Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-SUEZ) moved up to third with the same time.
"Last year, the Tour des Pyrénées was the first race where I really came as a leader for the general classification, and it was a very tough experience. Today, I'm here as the winner. I think I'm the same person as I was a year ago, but with much more experience. I've learned how to move better within the peloton, stay calm when it matters, and make better decisions during the race. This year, I arrived with much more confidence in myself and with a very strong team around me," Blasi said.
"Today we worked perfectly once again. We wanted to try to win the stage with Dominika, but when the breakaway went clear, we stayed focused on our main objective: controlling the race and securing the overall victory. We achieved that, and we're very happy and satisfied with the result."
5th edition of the race concluded on Sunday with the third stage, a 114.4km race from Nay to Jurançon with 1,700m of elevation, and a finishing circuit was 34km with three climbs: Cote de Montvert - 2.1km 7.6%, Cote de Bosdarros 1.6km 5.4%, and Cote de Merce 500m at over 12% that peaked at 4km from the finish line.
Ten riders emerged in the breakaway, gaining a maximum of 2:30 minutes that included Jansen and Curinier along with Irati Aranguren (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Nadia Quagliotto (Cofidis Women), Océane Mahé (Ma Petite Entreprise), Alice Coutinho (Mayenne Monbana My Pie), Awen Roberts (Canyon-SRAM Generation), Agua Marina Espínola (Team Abadie Magnan), Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini-BePink) and Olha Kulynych (Eneicat-Be Call).
Curinier and Jansen, despite an earlier crash, split off the front of the breakaway with 3.5km remaining, gaining a slim 10 seconds, but it forced reactions from the main peloton that sat about a minute back with Włodarczyk and Franziska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ). Several riders in the overall classification were aiming to gain even a few seconds before the finish.
The two leading riders held onto their gap in a sprint to the line, where Jansen took the victory ahead of Curinier, while Quagliotto took third. Blasi crossed the line one minute later to secure the overall victory.
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