Chaotic finale no problem for Lorena Wiebes at Simac Ladies Tour
Sprinter lost lead-out at key moment but still took stage victory.
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Lorena Wiebes may have won the second stage of the Simac Ladies Tour, but she did not fully benefit from the usually dialed Team DSM lead-out train.
The Dutch rider lost her final lead-out rider Charlotte Kool in the closing kilometers of the stage and had to improvise in the flat run in the Ede.
Approaching the final 500m, her teammate Pfeiffer Georgi led the peloton, but Wiebes was a wheel back behind a Liv Racing Xstra rider and ended up launching her sprint off of Amalie Dideriksen (Trek-Segafredo) instead of her teammate.
“In the final, it was a bit chaotic, but I stayed with Pfeiffer who brought me forward,” Wiebes said. “I was able to use those that came from behind in the sprint and, in the end, it was a short one to the line. I’m happy to finish it off again.”
Also read:
- Simac Ladies Tour stage 2: Lorena Wiebes doubles up in Ede
- Simac Ladies Tour stage 2: Lorena Wiebes storms to sprint win
Despite having slightly more work to do after the imperfect lead-out, Wiebes accelerated with ease to beat Laura Tomasi (UAE Team ADQ) and Lonneke Uneken (SD Worx) to the line, once again proving her near-unbeatable sprinting prowess, even in difficult finales.
This is the second time in recent weeks where Wiebes has relied on Georgi rather than traditional last-rider Kool, after the Dutch rider was behind Wiebes in the sprint on the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes.
Controlling the stage and going back-to-back 🏆
Go #InsideOut from today's #SLT2022 stage with our gallery📸👇🏻
— Team DSM (@TeamDSM) August 31, 2022
The somewhat chaotic finish from Team DSM was perhaps surprising after a straightforward day where the team had looked calmly in control all day.
Team DSM brought back the three-rider break that was away for much of the day, and Wiebes praised her team’s efforts during the stage.
“The day started with a break of three which went clear which was good for us,” she said. “Elise [Uijen] started to control it and Leah [Kirchmann] jumped in a few times; they were both super strong today and we did a really good job. Towards the end Franzi [Koch] then stepped in to bring everything back and we had it under control. It was a really good effort from the girls.”
Wiebes now leads the overall classification by 15 seconds, with more flat stages offering more chances for the Dutch rider to win at her home tour.
