Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour: Lucinda Brand holds off charging peloton to win stage 3

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Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) held off a charging peloton to win stage 3 at the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour. Overall race leader Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) won the bunch sprint for second place with Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) taking third place in Schleiz. 

Brand formed part of a late-race breakaway with Liane Lippert (Team DSM) and the pair held a mere 23-second gap in the closing kilometres of the race as the peloton behind set up for a bunch kick. 

Lippert made a last-ditch attack before being caught by the field, but Brand jumped and was able to power in just seconds ahead of the peloton.

“Just before the last kilometer, I attacked Liane because the group was so close behind, and I couldn’t wait longer. I just had to get through the pain and keep on fighting. It was really tough and close, but I am really happy that I could finish off the work of the team," Brand said.

“Not the yellow jersey yet, but we still have some days to try and get that one – and we are going to fight for that!” she added.

Norsgaard maintained her overall lead in the general classification ahead of stage 4's 101km race in Dörtendorf on Friday.

How it unfolded

The third stage at the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour was a 116.5km race that started and finished at Schleiz and included three climbs - Seeback (20.5km), Gahma (76.5km) and Fahrklippe (100km), and there were two back-to-back intermediate sprints in Beulwitz (47.5km) and Koditz (53.5km).

An early move included Helena Bieber and Lydia Ventker (RSG Gießen Biehler), Caroline Andersson (Hitec), and Kristen Wild (Ceratizit-WNT), who gained more than two minutes on the main field in the opening 10km of the stage. 

Ventker secured the maximum points over the top of the first ascent but that didn’t affect overall mountain leader Kathrin Hammes' position in the classification. Bieber was second over the top and Wild third.

The peloton behind were content to let them go and the four-rider breakaway pushed their lead out to six minutes after 40km of racing.

Lisa Müllenberg (ASC) tried to bridge the gap to the breakaway but remained in between the two groups and on her own for much of that effort.

Andersson won the first intermediate sprints at Beulwitz and Wild won the second sprint at Koditz. The main goal was to stay ahead of the field to contest the final, and so the four riders worked well together to pushed the gap out to eight minutes. Wild started the day 3:39 behind Norsgaard in the overall classification and became the virtual leader on the road.

Wild set a blistering pace over the next ascent at Gahma, at the 75km mark, that caused Andersson to lose contact on the lower slopes. Bieber and Ventker hung on to Wild’s wheel as she crested the climb to take full points, and the trio continued out front. Ventker was the next to fall off pace heading the third and final ascent.

Wild and Bieber pushed on but their time gap was slashed down to two minutes by a chase group of 20 riders that had emerged over the climbs.

Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) and Liane Lippert (Team DSM) caught the two breakaway riders over the last climb up Fahrklippe with 16km to go, and while Wild was able to hang on to the new move, Bieber struggled with the higher pace and dropped off the back.

Five kilometres later, Wild too fell off the pace after a long day in the decisive breakaway. Lippert and Brand pushed on to contest one another for the stage glory just seconds ahead of a charging peloton.