Lorena Wiebes dominates sprint again on Stage 3 at Women’s Tour to take overall lead

Despite a bunch sprint at times being far from a foregone conclusion, Lorena Wiebes (DSM) displayed complete confidence in herself and her team-mates to claim a second win in as many days on Stage 3 at the Women's Tour in Gloucester. Astonishing leg speed and 10 bonus seconds on the line also carried her into the race lead ahead of a heavy day of climbing in Wales. Before that, and after two stages in the gently undulating lowlands of the South East, the race headed for the somewhat lumpier West of England.

Ad/> Beginning in the mediaeval town of Tewkesbury it was a 109km course of two halves — relatively relaxed roads followed by a series of heavy and challenging hills. Giro d'ItaliaGiro d'Italia Stage 19 — Route map, with GC battle set to ignite agian26/05/2022 AT 19:36 Riejanne Markus of Jumbo-Visma was the rider to take the initiative in the early stages. Markus, winner of a stage of the Tour of Norway last summer, rode clear eight kilometres out from the official start.

From the unthreatening position of 92nd in the general classification and four minutes behind the leaders, the 27 year-old posed little threat to the overall and was all but assured of being given reasonable room to ride. Markus made it to the first sprint and KOM waypoints of the stage alone. More dangerous was the move from the QOM competitors, Christine Majerus (SD Worx) and Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo) who used Worrall Hill as a springboard to slip away from the bunch.

The pair shared the bonus seconds and points on offer at the intermediate sprint 2.5km later. With 50km of the stage and one categorised climb remaining, Majerus and Verhulst had made it three up front. They held a lead of almost a minute over the peloton by the bottom of Speech