Sandra Alonso (CERATIZIT-WNT) attacked from a reduced peloton with 1 kilometer remaining to win stage 6 on Sunday in Schmalkalden. Maggie Coles-Lyster (Roland) took the sprint for second followed by Lucinda Bran (Lidl-Trek) who was third.
Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) took overall victory, while Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) placed 2nd overall @ 2:06” and Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek) was third @ 2:59”.
Stage winner Sandra Alonso explained that it wasn’t really her plan to attack. “It wasn’t really our plan for me to (attack). Marta Lach (teammate) was still very good in the overall standings (5th overall). But I really felt very, very good the whole day. We had here in Thuringia a great week with three stage wins and can go home really happy.”
Overall winner Ruth Edwards was very pleased with the win. “It was a very, very hard day. I tried to save energy wherever possible. Now, of course, I’m very happy about the overall victory – it’s unbelievable. Now I’m enjoying my success and recovering for a few days, then I can continue with the women’s Giro in Italy.”
In pouring rain and cooler temperatures, the peloton set out to tackle to last stage which consisted of 850 meters of climbing. Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) was very active from the start, attacking on the climbs to claim the Queen of the Mountains jersey. Overall leader Ruth Winder (Human Powered Health) rode very well and made sure she was never far from responding to attacks.
Around 45km from the finish, a lead group of 18 came together including Edwards and Bredewold, but not Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) who was 3rd overall on the GC. Missing this split would end up costing Schweinberger ten places on the GC and in the end she would finish 13th overall.
Others were more fortunate, like Marta Lach (Ceratizit WNT), who won the bonus sprint and was able to gain four places in the overall ranking with a time credit of six seconds, eventually finishing 5th overall on the GC.
On the last climb, almost all of the jerseys showed up again and attacked. Bredewold took the second mountain classification with Edwards right behind. The group of six was then caught again ten kilometers from the finish after the long descent. Less than 2 kilometers from the finish, Alonso attacked and held on for the stage victory.
RESULTS
Stage 6: Schmalkalden > Schmalkalden (105.4km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
