With two stages ending in sprints, it’s no surprise that Lorena Wiebes now has a pair of stage victories in this year’s Simac Ladies Tour. The Team DSM rider didn’t win by the same distance as yesterday and had more of a harder time of it today compared to Stage 1 yesterday but still persevered to come through and take the win. Today’s stage around Ede saw her win ahead of Laura Tomasi of UAE Team ADQ and Lonneke Uneken of SD Worx. With the bonus seconds at the finish, Wiebes gains more of a lead in the general classification.
Today’s stage was 117.9km through the province of Gelderland. Unlike yesterday’s action, today’s stage was a bit more formulaic. An early break went up the road, containing Georgia Baker, Lieke Nooijen and Senne Knaven. Clara Lundmark of GT Krush Tunap started her chase across to the trio late and ended up in a chasse patate between the break and the peloton, ultimately she was caught by the bunch.
At the intermediate sprint, Nooijen took the bonus seconds ahead of Knaven and Baker in that order. It was the same order over the next intermediate sprint. Ultimately, none of the trio are in contention for the general classification, however. Nooijen dropped back after the 2nd sprint and left the front pair to push on. With the gap coming down, Georgia Baker upped the pace a bit more, enough to drop Knaven with 28km to go. Not too long after, Baker was swept up by the peloton with 15km to go. From this point, a sprint was inevitable.
The peloton was led by Team DSM, Jumbo Visma and Trek Segafredo in particular. Just outside the flamme rouge, Anna Henderson managed to spread the peloton out by taking a roundabout quicker than most and Wiebes was also distanced from Kool for her lead-out. As the peloton roared at speed to the finish, Wiebes was slightly boxed in on the inside but could push out, get a clear sight of the line and put out the power to win.
“It was a chaotic sprint. We lost my lead-out Charlotte Kool. Then I was quite early in the wheel of Pfeiffer Georgi, who had to hold something back then. I felt the rest coming from behind, but luckily I was able to catch it. In the end, it was a fairly short sprint, but enough to win.
It was a good situation for us to have the three ahead. We rode with Elise Uijen and Leah Kirchmann. Franziska Koch, Georgi Pfeiffer and Charlotte Kool took me well to the final. We had everything under control today.”
Lorena Wiebes
