Once again, Martina Fidanza (CERATIZIT-WNT) out-sprinted Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) in to take her second straight win at the LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour on Thursday in Erfurt. Rounding out the podium in third was Maggie Coles-Lyster (Roland).
Martina Fidanza explained afterwards her team’s tactics and what she hopes for in the remaining stages. “It was the flattest stage of this year’s tour, so our plan was to go for the stage win again. I feel great. The stages on Friday and Saturday with the individual time trial are not for me, but there could still be a chance for me on Sunday at the final in Schmalkalden.”
Teammate Franziska Brauße summed up how the team worked for Fidanza: “The last 20 kilometers, after we caught up with Mieke Kröger, we rode from the front for Martina. That was very tiring. But our plan worked – we wanted and had to ride for Martina today.”
In the overall GC, Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Volker Wessels) remains in the leader’s jersey, four seconds ahead of Ruth Winder (Human Powered Health) in second place, while Maggie Coles-Lyster is now in third overall.
The first two hours of racing were relatively quiet with temperatures hitting above 30C. The first of two mountain classifications of the day was won by Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels), who now leads the Queen of the Mountains competition by six points over Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing).
At around 82 kilometers to go, Lisa Kromm (MAXX Solar Rose) slipped away and rode alone for around 30km alone gaining as much as 45 seconds before she was caught by the peloton with 37km remaining.
Seven kilometers later, Mieke Kröger (German National Team) attacked, but this was short-lived and the peloton reeled her in. Shortly afterwards, the first major crash of the stage occurred on the wet roads from the summer showers, with Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) and Lena Reissner (LKT Team), as well as others, involved.
As the final kilometers wound down, Ceratizit WNT came to the front to control the sprint for Fidanza. In the final 500 meters Fidanza was hidden and tucked behind the others in 5th place, but when Guarischi launched her sprint, Fidanza appeared almost from out of nowhere and accelerated with incredible speed and passed Guarischi right before the line to take the victory.
RESULTS
Stage 3: Erfurt > Erfurt (144.6km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
