Vos wins stage 3 of Women's Tour

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World champion Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) prevailed in the sprint to win the third stage of the Women's Tour, beating Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) and Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) to the line. By virtue of the time bonus for the stage victory, Vos has taken over the race leadership from the morning's leader, Rosella Ratto (Estado de Mexico Faren). Stage 1 winner Johansson is now second overall, with Ratto holding onto third.

The 86.8km stage from the coastal towns of Felixstowe to Clacton-on-Sea started out fast from the gun and stayed pegged, with riders averaging nearly 40km for the deceptively lumpy stage. With the general classification separated by just seconds, attacks flew from the start, but the pace was so fast that no group could stay clear.

Boels-Dolmans set a furious pace for Lizzie Armitstead, delivering her to the line to win the first intermediate sprint in Kesgrave over Vos and Johansson, but Vos got the better of the British champion in the second sprint at Thorpe-le-Soken.

In between the two, UnitedHealthcare's Sharon Laws defended her lead in the mountains classification, winning the first QOM at Freston (km. 31.9) and taking second to contender Jolanda Neff (Switzerland) 4.5km later at Holbrook.

It wasn't until the race came within 30km of the finish that a group could break the grasp of the peloton, and Trixi Worrack (Specialized-lululemon) sparked a short-lived move, was caught, attacked again, but could not go clear.

The second sprint caused a brief split containing Armitstead, Vos and Johansson, but they too were brought back. Determined, Johansson attacked alone with 20km to go, but could only gain a few seconds advantage before being brought back into the fold.

Worrack attacked yet again, bringing along some strong help in the form of time trial specialist Linda Villumsen (Wiggle Honda) and Annamiek van Vleuten (Rabo-Liv), but Boels-Dolmans drove the pace hard to bring them back with 10km to go.

High winds and a rapid pace kept the peloton together for a bunch sprint, and although Tiffany Cromwell (Specialized-lululemon) tried her hand at a solo escape with the tailwind, she too was caught with 1km remaining, the strength of Rabo-Liv such that a Vos victory was the inevitable outcome.

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