Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) swept up her third win at the Baloise Ladies Tour and 50th UCI victory of her career in the first battle of two stages on Saturday, taking another sprint victory after the break was caught within 11km of the line in Knokke-Heist.
The victory on stage 3, ahead of Amber van der Hulst (Liv Racing Xstra) and Letizia Paternoster (Trek-Segafredo), also extended her lead on the overall making the gap to second-placed Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) 20 seconds, up from 11.
“The day started a bit more easy, we were with the whole team in the front,” said Wiebes of the 83km stage from Dutch Cadzand. “There were some attacks early on but nothing stayed away and we were able to take the intermediate sprint.”
"Maybe I came a bit too early into the wind, but it was enough to win and finish the teamwork off again,” said Wiebes.
The racing for the day, however, didn't finish with the sprint as still to come was the Saturday evening individual time trial, a discipline the second-placed Van Dijk holds the world title in.
Results powered by FirstCycling
-
'It's just a safer play' - Matteo Jorgenson dampens expectations of fireworks by Visma-Lease a Bike before second half of Vuelta a España
American confirms that Visma and leader Jonas Vingegaard waiting for second and third week to strike -
Marianne Vos takes second as Classic Lorient Agglomération sees all-Dutch podium
Visma-Lease a Bike in control of the race but lose out to Mischa Bredewold as Eline Jansen snatches her first Women’s WorldTour podium -
Tom Pidcock describes ongoing Vuelta a España as 'uneventful' but says 'big fireworks' are coming in second and third week
Brit biding his time after successful first eight days of racing, currently sits 11th on GC and 30 seconds behind favourite Jonas Vingegaard -
As it happened: Flat stage of the Vuelta a España decided by a bunch sprint
Flat 163km stage from Monzón Templario to Zaragoza offers up a rare chance for the sprinters
