The Women's Tour: Lorena Wiebes wins stage 5

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Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) won her second consecutive stage of The Women's Tour when she emerged victorious in the stage 5 sprint in Clacton-on-Sea. 

The penultimate stage of the British stage race was dominated by a solo breakaway from Hayley Simmonds (CAMS-Basso Bikes), who was the virtual GC leader on the road for a long time, but was eventually reeled in with 16 kilometres to go.

In the bunch sprint, Wiebes was unchallenged, finishing almost two bike lengths ahead of world champion Elisa Balsamo (Valcar-Travel & Service) and Marjolein van 't Geloof (Drops-Le Col s/b Tempur). 

Overall race leader Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) finished with the peloton and goes into the final stage with a lead of 1:09 minutes on Juliette Labous (Team DSM) and 1:16 minutes on Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope).

How it unfolded

Starting in Colchester, stage 5 saw the peloton ride eastwards followed by 1.5 laps of a long finishing circuit until finishing in Clacton-on-Sea after 95.4 kilometres. The route included two intermediate sprints and three QOM sprints.

Hayley Simmonds (CAMS-Basso Bikes) broke away from the peloton after only a few kilometres, and the time trial specialist quickly gained a large advantage. Having started the stage in 22nd place overall, 2:55 minutes behind Vollering, Simmonds was the virtual race leader when she crossed the finish line in Clacton for the first time after 32 kilometres.

Simmonds’ advantage maxed out at the 50-kilometre mark when she was 4:30 minutes ahead, then Team SD Worx as well as Team DSM started chasing at the front of the peloton and gradually reduced the gap.

Connie Hayes (AWOL O’Shea) had gone on a solo chase of Simmonds, but never got further than 1:20 minutes away from the peloton and was caught with 36km to go as the chase began in earnest.

Simmonds took maximum points on the first two QOM sprints and also won the two intermediate sprints. In the peloton, Copponi picked up three bonus seconds which brought her within seven seconds of Labous, with fourth-placed Amy Pieters (Team SD Worx) also moving a second closer to the Frenchwoman.

Sarah Roy, Ane Santesteban (both Team BikeExchange), and Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) jumped away from the peloton just after the Manningtree QOM with 30 kilometres to go, and Simmonds’ lead quickly dropped to under two minutes. The chasing trio was caught by the peloton 21 kilometres from the finish, and Simmonds was brought back five kilometres later.

On the second ascent of Tenpenny Hill, the last classified climb of the day, Chabbey was second behind Alice Towers (Drops-Le Col s/b Tempur). Together with the points the Swiss climber had collected on the first ascent, this was enough to secure her the green QOM jersey provided she finishes the final stage. Although she did not pick up any sprint points on stage 5, Nina Kessler (Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank) is certain of winning the red sprints jersey as her lead, too, is insurmountable.

Soraya Paladin (Liv Racing) tried a late attack after Tenpenny Hill but was quickly caught again, and the stage came down to a sprint in which Wiebes used her superior speed to win the stage.