Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT) won stage 3 of the Tour of Chongming Island on Thursday, and in doing so, took the overall GC from teammate Mylène de Zoete. The 111.4km stage ended in a mass sprint, with Lach charging to the line ahead of Scarlett Souren and Sofie van Rooijen, both from team VolkerWessels.
Stage 3 podium: Scarlett Souren, Marta Lach, Sofie van Rooijen (photo: tocmi)
Lach’s teammate, Mylène de Zoete held the yellow jersey going into stage 3, but was boxed in during the final sprint and finished 12th, dropping her to 2nd in the overall GC.
Lach also won the green points jersey, while Anne Knijnenburg (VolkerWessels) took the mountain jersey and her teammate Scarlett Souren took the white youth jersey.
GC podium: Anne Knijnenburg, Marta Lach, Scarlett Souren (photo: tocmi)
The intermediate sprints played a role in stage 3, with many riders only separated by seconds. Sofie van Rooijen (VolkerWessels) took the first intermediate sprint after 32 kilometers, while the second was taken by teammate Souren Van Rooijen, and the third by teammate Anne Knijnenburg.
After the second intermediate sprint, Anne Knijnenburg (VolkerWessels) and Nela Slaníková (Team Dukla Praha) became the breakaway of the day, slipping off the front and gaining more than a minute on the peloton.
Nela Slaníková and Anne Knijnenburg were the breakaway of the day (photo: tocmi)
With a little more than 20km to go, Knijnenburg dropped her breakaway companion Slaníková and continued to keep her gap of more than a minute. But as the kilometers wound down, it was apparent that it would be a difficult task for Knijnenburg to hold off the peloton, which was being driven by Ceratizit-WNT, and with less than 5km to go she was within sight and caught.
In the sprint, GC leader Mylène de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT) was too far back, but her teammate Marta Lach was not, and she executed the perfect sprint to take the stage and the final GC.
Yellow jersey, Mylène de Zoete, was too far back in the final sprint and only managed 12th place (photo: 24tocmi)
Ceratizit-WNT won big – all three stages, the overall GC, the green points jersey, and the team classification – and it should help put the team into the top 10 for the overall rankings for the WorldTour. UAE-Team ADQ had a podium result on stage 1 with Tereza Neumanova taking 2nd, but never seemed to get going after that. Human Powered Health was in the mix with Silvia Zanardi on the podium in stage 1 with a 3rd place, and then missing out on subsequent stages with a 6th and 4th place. Roland was third in the team classification and rode consistently as a team, but fell short of podium results, with Maggie Coles-Lyster their best finisher on stage 2 in 5th place.
Continental-level team VolkerWessels performed well, taking podium spots on stage 3, placing 3rd and 4th on the final GC, winning the mountain jersey and youth jersey, and taking 2nd in the team classification. The only thing missing was a stage win. But you can’t have it all and perhaps what is more important is they moved up in the WorldTour rankings and can point to the rankings as evidence that they should not be excluded from top-level events like the Tour de France Femmes.
Continental team, VolkerWessels, moved up in the UCI rankings and showed they are worthy of a spot in Tour de France Femmes (photo: 24tocmi)
RESULTS
Stage 3 (Final) Chongming New City Park(111.4km)
FINAL GC