Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 3 of the Tour de France Femmes, beating Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) in the sprint of a small group that escaped a crash in the last 5km.
With the bonus seconds for second place, Vos takes back the yellow jersey from Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), who was caught out behind the late-race crash and the splits in the field into Angers and so did not contest the final sprint.
Vos now leads the GC by six seconds ahead of Le Court and 12 seconds ahead of her teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.
The break of the day had been caught 6km from the line, but with 3.7km to go, there was a mass crash in a right-hand turn off a bridge.
GC favourite Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) was among the crashed riders and visibly in pain as she was helped up by her teammates to roll across the line. There will be no time loss, as the crash occurred in the last 5km, but it remains to be seen which injuries Vollering and the other riders who crashed have sustained.
“I didn’t even realise the crash was happening, to be honest. I was focusing so much on getting well through the corners. These corners were also a bit tricky and sketchy, so I really was focused on following the wheel of Lotte [Kopecky], and I hope all the riders are OK. I heard Demi was also in the crash. I hope she’s fine,” Wiebes said after her victory.
Even in a reduced group after the crash, it was still a chaotic sprint, but Wiebes had her teammate Kopecky to pilot her onto the finishing straight.
“I can trust Lotte fully, and that makes it really good because I can focus on her wheel and I know that she will deliver me in a good way. To be honest, I could not wait to start my sprint after waiting for 160km, and I was so excited that I started maybe a bit too early,” Wiebes described the final.
Unlike other sprint finishes where Wiebes was far ahead of the rest, Vos gave her a close fight.
“I saw already in the Giro that she could stay in my wheel, so I knew to keep an eye on her. I learned from Amstel [the 2024 Amstel Gold Race where Vos beat Wiebes on the line] that I need to look to the left and to the right side to see her. It was to the finish, and I realised it was enough,” Wiebes said.
With one stage victory under her belt, the European champion is now looking ahead to stage 4.
“We go for it again tomorrow. The team did so well today, controlling the breakaway the whole stage. I hope the girls recover a bit for tomorrow because it’s a hard day again for them and for us,” finished Wiebes.
Marianne Vos reclaims yellow on stage 3 at the Tour de France (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
The leader's of the special jersey classification line up on stage 3 at the Tour de France Femmes in La Gacilly (Image credit: Getty Images)
Covering 163.5km from La Gacilly to Angers, the flat stage included only one categorised climb and was expected to finish in a sprint, with tailwinds contributing to a fast pace. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) did not start the stage due to a gastrointestinal infection.
The break of the day was established within the first 15km when Canadian champion Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Clémence Latimier (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Spanish champion Sara Martín (Movistar), and Chilean champion Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) went away.
Canadian champion Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Clémence Latimier (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Spanish champion Sara Martín (Movistar), and Chilean champion Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) in the stage 3 breakaway at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Their advantage maxed out at 4:45 minutes before SD Worx-Protime took up the chase. At the intermediate sprint in Vern-d’Anjou with just under 40km to go, the peloton’s deficit had been reduced to 2:38 minutes, and with Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) lending a hand to the SD Worx-Protime riders, the gap was down to 49 seconds at the 20km mark.
With 11km to go and the peloton only 30 seconds away, the escapees started to attack each other. Latimier was the first to jump but paid for it immediately when she couldn’t follow the counterattacks.
After attempts by Martín and Jackson, Soto jumped clear 8km from the line, but Jackson and Martín came back to her with 6.5km to go. They were all caught with 6km to go though, setting up a sprint finish.
SD Worx-Protime did much of the work to pull back the breakaway for their sprinter Lorena Wiebes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Turning right off the Pont Jean Moulin 3.7km from the finish, a touch of wheels around position 20 caused a mass crash that took down a.o. Vollering, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Dygert, Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) and held up Le Court and the vast majority of the peloton.
Marie Le Net (FDJ-Suez) brought the group of about 20 riders that escaped from the crash onto the finishing straight, and Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) went long with 450 metres to go.
Behind the Swisswoman, Kopecky led out Wiebes who launched her sprint at the 200-metre sign. Vos was on Wiebes’ wheel and managed to hold on to it, even coming out of the slipstream for a moment before realising that Wiebes was too strong and settling for second place.
Demi Vollering finishes stage 3 after being involved in a late-race crash in Angers (Image credit: Getty Images)
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.
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Update – FDJ SUEZ says with 'non-urgent nature of her medical condition' no hospital visit needed but further tests, including second concussion protocol, will take place Tuesday morning
