Last year’s winner Demi Vollering took the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. The 27-year-old Dutchwoman braved the strains on Tuesday with two stages and won the subsequent individual time trial in Rotterdam.
In the overall standings, Vollering is now three seconds ahead of her compatriot and teammate Lorena Wiebes and five ahead of Chloe Dygert from the USA.
Vollering from Team SD Worx-Protime needed 7:25 minutes for the 6.3 km long and entirely flat course. Dygert (Canyon/SRAM Racing) followed in second place, five seconds behind.
Wiebes finished seventh (0:09 minutes behind). The best German was Franziska Koch (Mettmann/dsm-firmenich PostNL) who finished 15th (0:15).
By midday, the riders had already had to complete the 67.9 km long second stage from Dordrecht to Rotterdam.
Dutchwoman Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) celebrated her second sprint victory ahead of Wiebes and fellow countrywoman Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a bike), who both finished at the same time. However, Kool lost the overall lead in the battle against the clock.
The fourth of the eight stages takes the peloton to Belgium. There are eight climbs on the very hilly 122.7 km, and the riders will travel largely through the Ardennes classics region to Liège.
On Sunday, the third edition of the women’s mountain finish tour ends in the famous winter sports resort of Alpe d’Huez.
Source: www.sport.de
