OVO Energy Women's Tour: D'hoore wins stage 3

Jolien D'hoore (Boels-Dolmans) won stage 3 of the OVO Energy Women's Tour. The racing was overshadowed by a mass crash that took out overall leader Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv), who was forced to abandon the race, and caused a neutralisation while the race doctor was attending to the crashed riders.

In the sprint finish at Blenheim Palace, D'hoore beat Lisa Brennauer (WNT-Rotor) and Demi Vollering (Parkhotel Valkenburg) to the win. With Vos out of the race, Brennauer is the new GC leader.

Starting in Henley-on-Thames, the peloton faced 145.1 kilometres to the finish on the grounds of Blenheim Palace. The first 21km included two mountain sprints at the second category Pishill and first category Britwell Hill before the terrain flattened out somewhat. Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) was first over Pishill, adding to her lead in the QOM classification.

Anna Plichta (Trek-Segafredo) attacked soon after that and crested Britwell Hill with a 55-second advantage. Majerus, Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott), and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) briefly formed a chase group that reduced the gap to 28 seconds before being reeled in by the peloton.

Reluctant to catch Plichta this early, the peloton allowed the Polish soloist to extend her lead to over a minute. She rolled through the first intermediate sprint in Wallingford after 56.4km, the remaining bonus seconds going to Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) and Vos in the peloton.

Plichta also won the second intermediate sprint in Didcot nine kilometres later, but the peloton suffered a mass crash on the downhill into the town that stopped the race completely.

The race doctor was busy attending the crash victims, meaning that the race had to be neutralised. Nine riders had to abandon the race, including Vos in the green jersey and her teammates Valerie Demey and Jeanne Korevaar, Team Virtu Cycling trio Anouska Koster, Barbara Guarischi, and Katrine Aalerud, as well as Trixi Worrack (Trek-Segafredo), Julie Leth (Bigla), and Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM).

When the race was re-started, Plichta further extended her advantage to 1:50 minutes, putting her into the virtual race lead. The peloton then started the chase in earnest, quickly closing the gap and catching Plichta with 41 km to go. Another crash 30 km from the finish injured Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) and held up Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo), among others, but they could all finish the race.

D'hoore's second stage victory in three days puts her firmly into the lead in the points classification. Stage runner-up Brennauer is the new overall leader, Rivera continues to wear the red jersey for the intermediate sprint classification and is only three seconds behind Brennauer in the general classification. Deignan is four seconds back in third place overall and will wear the light-blue jersey for the best British rider.

The OVO Energy Women's Tour continues with stage 4 on Thursday, a hilltop finish at Burton Dassett Country Park.

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