OVO Energy Women's Tour: Roy wins stage 3

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Sarah Roy (Mitchelton-Scott) won stage 3 of the OVO Energy Women's Tour in the sprint of a group of 50 riders, beating Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance) and Marianne Vos (WaowDeals) to the line. Race leader Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) finished in fourth place, defending her green jersey.

Starting in Atherstone and winding its way through Warwickshire before finishing in Royal Leamington Spa, at 150.4 km the stage was the longest of the five-day race. Two intermediate sprints offered bonus seconds, and the last 40 km were spiced up by two category 2 hills.

There were plenty of attacks in the start, but the peloton kept things together, enabling Rivera to win the first intermediate sprint. Only 50 kilometres into the race were Vita Heine (Hitec Products-Birk Sport) and Ann-Sophie Duyck (Cervélo-Bigla) able to get away. At the second intermediate sprint, the two had a two-minute advantage.

Moniek Tenniglo (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) attacked from the peloton to try to bridge to the front duo, but never got close enough and abandoned her attempt with 64 km to go after a 13-kilometre solo chase. At this point, Heine and Duyck enjoyed their biggest lead of 3:55 minutes.

The peloton cut over a minute from that on the unclassified Holloway Hill and the rolling landscape that followed, and the steep ascent of Edge Hill saw the escapees lose even more ground. At the top, their advantage was only just over a minute, as Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) had attacked from the peloton.

When Niewiadoma and Longo Borghini were caught by a reduced peloton, where only some 25 riders remained, Rossella Ratto (Cylance) tried to bridge the gap to the front that was now only 30 seconds. Ratto succeeded, but the front trio was caught shortly afterwards on the slopes of the Burton Dassett climb.

Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma, Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM), and Sabrina Stultiens (WaowDeals) took flight on the ascent, with Longo Borghini reaching the top first to defend her black mountain jersey. This quartet had a small gap on the descent but was caught again a few kilometres after the climb.

From here on, the race never settled down with continuous attacks from the first group of about 35 riders, all while another group half a minute behind was trying to chase back on. Nobody managed to get away from the group, but the race was in single-file for most of the final 20 kilometres. A small group got a gap for a moment with 9 km to go, but their move was short-lived.

After two solo escapes on the final kilometres into Royal Leamington Spa had been brought back, the stage win was decided in the sprint of a group of 50 riders. Roy passed Vos with around 150 metres to go; Bronzini was in the Australian's slipstream, but could not come around her.

The win was Roy’s second at the OVO Energy Women's Tour after winning stage 4 of last year’s race. Race leader, Rivera sprinted to fourth place and defended her overall lead; she is now 16 seconds ahead of Vos who leapfrogged her teammate Dani Rowe in the general classification.

On Friday, the OVO Energy Women's Tour takes the peloton from Evesham to Worcester on a 131.5-kilometre stage.

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