photo credits @ Twitter
Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans) claimed stage 3 of this year’s Aviva Women’s Tour in Kettering, ahead of Barbara Guarischi (Velocio-SRAM) and Lucy Garner (Liv-Plantur).
Majerus’s victory comes two days after her team-mate Lizzie Armitstead took the opening stage but was forced to abandon when she crashed after the finish line. Majerus, the Luxembourg national road race champion, is now the race leader by three seconds from Belgium’s Jolien D’hoore (Wiggle Honda), having finished a close second to her on stage two.
At a little more than 139 kilometers, today’s third stage from Oundle to Kettering marked the longest of the race.
There were two non-starters with Joanna Rowsell, of Pearl Izumi Sports Tours, and Coryn Rivera (UnitedHealthcare) not signing in. Rivera was suffering with a broken collarbone following a crash on Thursday.
Despite the long day ahead of them, it was a fast start to the day with the peloton racing along at more than 50kph. The high speeds made it difficult for a breakaway to get clear, although, there was a brief split in the bunch as they went through the first intermediate sprint, but it soon came back together. Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS), who started the day third in the classification, took the top spot to add three points to her tally.
The attacks continued to come including a concerted effort from Bigla’s Vera Koedooder, who spent 100km out front on stage two but it was not to be. The high pace and rolling roads took their toll and the peloton split into two groups after 55km of racing. The gap went out to 15sec before the chasers finally regained touch.
It was not until Chloe McConville (Orica-AIS) made a move after the first climb that a break began to take shape and after 70km of racing they had 38sec on the peloton. As the peloton jostled behind before the second intermediate sprint and QOM, the two riders were allowed to build an advantage of 1:30. In between the leaders and the peloton, Sharon Laws of Bigla set off in chase. Lex Albrecht (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) would follow suit but after some time.
After a lengthy pursuit, Laws finally joined forces with the two riders out front as they neared the 100km mark. Albrecht would get within 20sec of the leading trio but could not bridge the gap. With less than 40km remaining the escapees had a 3:30 advantage on the peloton. That would be the most they were allowed to have with many teams interested in a bunch sprint at the finish.
The escapees were finally reeled in with 3km of racing and the expected sprint finish came to fruition with Majerus sealing the victory by a substantial margin.
Top 20 Finishers
1 Christine Majerus (Lux) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 3:43:05 2 Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Velocio – SRAM 0:00:02 3 Lucy Garner (GBr) Team Liv-Plantur 4 Hannah Barnes (GBr) Unitedhealthcare Professional Cycling Team 5 Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica – Ais 6 Lisa Brennauer (Ger) Velocio – SRAM 7 Jolien D’Hoore (Bel) Wiggle Honda 8 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Velocio – SRAM 0:00:05 9 Amalie Dideriksen (Den) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 10 Simona Frapporti (Ita) Ale Cipollini 11 Leah Kirchmann (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies 12 Katarzyna Pawlowska (Pol) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 13 Susanna Zorzi (Ita) Lotto Soudal Ladies 14 Pascale Jeuland (Fra) Poitou-Charentes.Futuroscope.89 15 Alexis Ryan (USA) Unitedhealthcare Professional Cycling Team 16 Megan Guarnier (USA) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 17 Lauren Stephens (USA) USA National Team 18 Anouska Koster (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 19 Roxane Knetemann (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 20 Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita) Ale Cipollini
General Classification
1 Christine Majerus (Lux) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 9:46:09 2 Jolien D’Hoore (Bel) Wiggle Honda 0:00:03 3 Lisa Brennauer (Ger) Velocio – SRAM 0:00:04 4 Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica – Ais 0:00:09 5 Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Velocio – SRAM 0:00:10 6 Lucy Garner (GBr) Team Liv-Plantur 0:00:12 7 Hannah Barnes (GBr) Unitedhealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:00:13 8 Simona Frapporti (Ita) Ale Cipollini 0:00:19 9 Alexis Ryan (USA) Unitedhealthcare Professional Cycling Team 10 Pascale Jeuland (Fra) Poitou-Charentes.Futuroscope.89 11 Anouska Koster (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 12 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Velocio – SRAM 13 Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita) Ale Cipollini 14 Roxane Knetemann (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 15 Susanna Zorzi (Ita) Lotto Soudal Ladies 16 Lauren Stephens (USA) USA National Team 17 Katarzyna Pawlowska (Pol) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 18 Leah Kirchmann (Can) Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies 19 Megan Guarnier (USA) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 20 Amalie Dideriksen (Den) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team
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