Regardless of being arguably the flattest street stage of the Vuelta Femenina, stage 3 was something however a relaxed affair. From the second the race became a tail-crosswind 90 km from the end, the tempo was relentless and the peloton shattered, costing some pre-race favourites a hope of touchdown a prime consequence.
Movistar, SD Worx, Jumbo-Visma, DSM and Canyon-SRAM labored onerous to profit from the echelon motion and improved their GC positions whereas different groups suffered setbacks of their GC bids. Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) specifically noticed her hopes of an total podium fly away because the light-weight climber misplaced nearly three minutes.
Stage 3 winner Marianne Vos (Workforce Jumbo-Visma) remains to be within the pink chief’s jersey, however the 35-year-old now not targets Grand Tour total classifications and is as an alternative anticipated to assist her teammates Riejanne Markus (third at 14 seconds) and Amber Kraak (22 seconds behind in fifth total).
Chloé Dygert, Élise Chabbey, Kasia Niewiadoma (all Canyon-SRAM), Liane Lippert, Annemiek van Vleuten (each Movistar Workforce), Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser, and Niamh Fisher-Black (all Workforce SD Worx), Juliette Labous, and Esmée Peperkamp (each Workforce DSM) all completed within the entrance echelon and consequently didn’t lose time on GC.
Dygert is second total, solely 13 seconds behind Vos, and has proven her power within the TTT, the sprints and the echelons. If she will be able to present the identical power on the climbs, a very good GC consequence just isn’t out of the query, although her workforce’s primary GC hopes are Niewiadoma and Chabbey.
Lippert is within the function of a co-leader alongside Van Vleuten whereas the allocation of roles at SD Worx and DSM is extra hierarchical as Vollering and Labous can command sole management.
Silvia Persico (UAE Workforce ADQ) misplaced 1:32 minutes within the echelons however had her teammates Olivia Baril, Mikayla Harvey, and Erica Magnaldi within the entrance echelon, holding the workforce’s GC hopes intact as all three are actually 1:03 minutes down on Vos. Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind) follows one second behind. Persico is thirty ninth total at 2:35 minutes and will now get carte blanche to go for a stage win, probably already on stage 4 that incorporates a third-category climb within the last.
A number of different groups can even have to focus on stage victories if they need a victory at this Vuelta Femenina. Trek-Segafredo had excessive hopes for his or her younger Italian climber Gaia Realini who fared properly within the UAE Tour echelons in February however was swept away by the wind on the plains of Castilla-La Mancha, dropping 2:41 minutes regardless of her workforce’s efforts to restrict the losses. Nonetheless, Realini now has the choice of going for victory on the mountaintop finishes of phases 5 and seven with out the concern of being reeled in as a GC menace.
Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ), Kristen Faulkner (Workforce Jayco-AlUla), and Claire Steels (Israel-Premier Tech Roland) had been in the identical echelon as Realini and equally misplaced their possibilities of a prime GC consequence as they’re now over three minutes behind. Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) and Ane Santesteban (Workforce Jayco-AlUla) might mitigate their losses considerably and are actually positioned thirty second and thirty sixth, respectively, at 2:19 minutes and a pair of:25 minutes.
