History made as Wiebes wins again at Women's Tour

Lorena Wiebes has powered to a historic double at the Women’s Tour winning her second consecutive stage after edging world road race champion Elisa Balsamo to collect victory on Stage 5.

Women's Tour Lorena Wiebes

Lorena Wiebes celebrates after sprinting to victory on Stage five of the Women's Tour Source: Getty Images

Watch extended highlights from all six stages of the Women's Tour available each morning via SBS On Demand from October 5-10.

And from October 4, the SBS team of Kate Bates, Gracie Elvin and Christophe Mallet will preview and review all the action from the Women's Tour, including checking in with the riders and providing analysis throughout the event, daily at 1:30 pm (AEDT) LIVE on Cycling Central  and .

Wiebes, of Team DSM, delivered another brilliant late push to sprint past Balsamo (Valcar-Travel & Serviceand) and Maria van’t Geloof (Drops-Le Col) to collect victory in Clacton-on-Sea.

The win makes Wiebes only the second rider in Women’s Tour history to win back-to-back stages with Dutch superstar Marianne Vos the only other rider to do so when she achieved the feat in 2014.

“We put Liane (Lippert) in the front for the chase and everything was under control actually so that was good,” said Wiebes.
“With the lead-out, we were a bit too early in the front. It was a bit chaotic but in the last bend, I found my way to the front and almost directly started my sprint.

“I came with some speed from behind and it worked out pretty good we controlled the day.”

Another Dutch rider, Vollering (SD-Worx), will go into the final stage with an overall lead of more than a minute but may have endured some nervous moments on Friday after an audacious solo breakaway effort from the British rider Hayley Simmonds.

The story of the day looked like being Simmonds’ performance after the time trial specialist attacked seven kilometres out from the start in Colchester. Having started the day 2:55 behind Vollering on GC, she amassed a lead of four-and-a-half minutes with 50 kilometres remaining.

However, a mix of action in the peloton on the climb at Manningtree combined with Simmonds’ fatigue saw her caught just 15 kilometres outside of Clacton.

Wiebes again looked unstoppable once she had started her sprint along Marine Parade West and duly claimed her 12th victory of the season. Race leader Vollering finished out of trouble in 30th.

“My team were totally in control today,” said Vollering.

“They went on the front and did a few turns to keep the speed high before bringing back the break so that was good.
“Tomorrow we need to keep it together and make it a good race again. We don’t have a plan yet; we need to see first, look a bit better at the route and then we will see.”

Thanks to her victory, Wiebes moves into the lead of the points jersey, two points ahead of Australian sprinter Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo), who added a fourth-place finish to her second (Banbury) and third (Southend-on-Sea) already this week.

It was a strong day for the Australian riders, Hosking’s fourth was followed by a 12th place finish for Sarah Roy (Team BikeExchange), Nicole Frain (Team TIBCO – Silicon Valley Bank) was 22nd, while Jess Allen (Team BikeExchange) was 51st.

Saturday’s final stage is a 155.3-kilometre route from Haverhill to Felixstowe, with two categorised climbs offering the last chance for the chasing pack to put Vollering under pressure.


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Published 9 October 2021 9:04am
Updated 9 October 2021 9:06am
Source: SBS Cycling Central


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