Charlotte Kool taking sprint victory on stage 3 of the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool taking sprint victory on stage 3 of the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool taking sprint victory on stage 3 of the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton in the early kilometres of the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lotte Kopecky rode conservatively to hold her overall lead on stage 3 of the Simac Ladies Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Scarlett Souren (Team Parkhotel Valkenburg) and Julie Hendrickx (Lotto Dstny Ladies) on an early breakaway(Image credit: Getty Images)
Charlotte Kool (Team DSM-Firmenich) won stage 3 of the Simac Ladies Tour, sprinting to victory in Lelystad ahead of Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).
A breakaway of Anneke Dijkstra (GT Krush RebelLease), Scarlett Souren (Parkhotel Valkenburg), and Julie Sap (Lotto dstny Ladies) were ahead for most of the stage, holding an advantage of up to eight minutes, but when the sprinters' teams united their forces in the chase, the breakaway was caught 10 km from the line.
Two attacks by Lifeplus Wahoo in the final did not last long, and in a fast sprint, Kool chose the best line and won a bike length ahead of her former teammate Wiebes.
“It was a slow start today. We thought, it’s not on us to chase. Normally we always do the work, but now we didn’t have the yellow jersey anymore, and I was third in the first sprint, so it was time for someone else to do it,” Kool explained her team’s strategy for the stage.
The plan worked out as Team SD Worx of GC leader Lotte Kopecky did most of the chase work, with Team DSM-Firmenich only joining in on the last 35 kilometres.
“I don’t think everybody was still fresh for the sprint, and Franzi [Koch] still did a great leadout. This time, I didn’t let myself get boxed in, and if I can sprint unhindered, I know that I am very fast. That happened today, and it’s nice that it worked out,” Kool described the sprint.
How it Unfolded
Held entirely in the reclaimed lands of the Flevoland province, the stage was completely flat, with the highest point being 10 metres above sea level on the bridge from the Nordoostpolder, site of the start town of Emmeloord, to the Flevopolder where most of the stage was held. In fact, many of the roads were below sea level.
Undeterred by the lack of any prizes on the 149-kilometre stage, Dijkstra, Souren, and Sap set out on a breakaway within a few kilometres of the real start, and they quickly gained a one-minute advantage on the peloton.
When they crossed the finish line in Lelystad for the first time to start two laps of a 60.4-kilometre circuit, they were 1:48 minutes ahead, but the gap ballooned to almost eight minutes on the first lap.
Team SD Worx eventually took control of the chase, but the peloton crossed the finish line with 60.4 km to go still 7:37 minutes down on the break. Dijkstra, 49 seconds behind Kopecky ahead of the stage, was the virtual GC leader, and the breakaway seemed to have a genuine chance of making it to the finish.
However, Kopecky’s teammates now went all-in, and when Team DSM-Firmenich joined in, the gap fell quickly. 25 km from the line, the three escapees had 2:30 minutes left, and a few kilometres later, Souren made an attack that dropped Dijkstra from the front group.
The gap continued to go down as Lidl-Trek also put riders on the front of the peloton, and Souren unsuccessfully tried to drop Sap twice, but in the end both riders were reeled in at the ten-kilometre mark.
Just before, Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma), second overall at two seconds behind Kopecky, had crashed in a roundabout, but she quickly made her way back into the peloton.
When the attacks by Lifeplus Wahoo were brought back, the stage was set for a mass sprint. Georgia Baker (Team Jayco AlUla) led her teammate Letizia Paternoster through the 180-degree left turn and the following right turn onto the finish straight, with Wiebes on Paternoster’s wheel followed by Kool, Anna Henderson (Team Jumbo-Visma), and Balsamo.
Henderson launched her sprint early on the left side of the road, but Baker swung off to the left after finishing her leadout with 250 metres to go, just as the finish barriers began. Wiebes went around Baker on the left, forcing Henderson to brake, and the Briton finished 17th in the end.
Meanwhile, Kool had chosen to go around Paternoster on the right side and had plenty of room to get up to speed, passing Wiebes 150 metres from the line and pulling ahead to win.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
