Fem van Empel (Netherlands) captured the stage 3 bunch sprint on Wednesday at the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes. From the group of 20 riders Dominika Wlodarczyk (Poland) took second place, holding off Gaia Masetti (Italy), who finished third.
Van Empel earned her second podium in as many days, finishing third on stage 2. She accelerated to the front of the race with under 200 metres to go and rode away from her challengers across the uphill finish line.
“Yeah, a great feeling. Yesterday, I finished third. I was in good position but I was unlucky that I couldn’t finish it off. But today, we made a good plan. We were in a very good position on the last climb. Shirin van Anrooij and Nienke Vinke did a very good job, and yeah, we finished it off,” Van Empel said after earning her first road victory of the season.
“I wore the polka-dot jersey today, so my goal was to take points on the climbs. When the legs are good, then we can go for a sprint. It worked today.”
Nathalie Quinn (USA) went on a solo attack for close to 30km near the end of the 97.3km charge to Val d’Epy, but with 15km to go the peloton pulled her back to set up the sprint finish.
Results
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Giro d'Italia stage 8 LIVE: Ganna and Bettiol up the road but battle to form the break continues to rage
A challenging day in the Marche hills concludes with an 8% finishing climb in Fermo -
Itzulia Women: Dominika Włodarczyk seizes first WorldTour victory on stage 2 as attackers narrowly hold off rapidly chasing race leader
Polish rider denies Mischa Bredewold back-to-back wins as attacking companion Shirin van Anrooij takes third -
Dutch federation U-turn on under-23 cuts with appointment of Chantal van den Broek-Blaak as women's U23 national coach
'I hope not only to help young talents progress athletically, but also to inspire them in their development as people and athletes' says retired Dutch rider, after KNWU made cuts to U23 programme -
Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman limit losses but can't match the best on Giro d'Italia's first GC test
Netcompany Ineos duo finish 21st and 10th on Blockhaus with Arensman continuing to look stronger
