Thüringen Ladies Tour 2023 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE] (ladies)

May 25, 2023

Thüringen Ladies Tour 2023 – Stage 3 – Schmölln – Schmölln : 94,6 km

The LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour is one of the oldest stage races on the women’s racing calendar, with its debut edition dating all the way back to 1988. Comprising six stages, the race is also one of the longest on the calendar. The six-day event, based in Germany, returned in 2021 after a one-year hiatus, largely thanks to a remarkable crowdfunding campaign. Citing a lack of finance to cover the extra costs needed to host the event in a safe manner during the pandemic, the race organisers appealed to their fans to raise €35,000 and in the end fundraised almost €47,000. As it has done for the past three decades, the race will follow an undulating, six-day route that favours neither the puncheurs or climbers entirely. Instead, this is a race for the fast-finishing opportunists, those riders who are willing to risk it all to win it all.

Barbara Guarischi continued SD Worx’s winning streak after securing the stage 3 victory at the Thüringen Ladies Tour. The Italian won the bunch sprint ahead of teammate Lorena Wiebes, while the day’s breakaway rider Sandra Alonso (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling) hung on for third place in Schmölln.

Mischa Bredewold maintained her lead in the overall classification, as SD Worx held the top-three spots, with Wiebes in second at nine seconds back and Lotte Kopecky in third at 15 seconds back.

The Thüringen Ladies Tour continues with stage 4’s 135.5km race in Gotha.

How it unfolded
The third stage of the Thüringen Ladies Tour was a shorter 94.6km race in Schmölln, including four large loops, each with a climb over Gößnitz (900m at 5.1%) and a sprint at the finish line on each circuit.

The first lap of the race saw attacks coming out of the peloton from teams Arkea and Parkhotel Valkenburg. It led to an early but short-lived breakaway, including Romy Kasper (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep) and Lieke Nooijen (Parkhotel Valkenburg) as they were reeled in before the start of the second lap.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) sprinted for full points and bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint at the start of the second lap, beating Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT) and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Jayco-AlUla).

Femke Gerritse (Parkhotel Valkenburg) was the next to try to escape the field, but her efforts only lasted a few kilometres, and she was swallowed by an SD Worx and Canyon-SRAM-led peloton.

The peloton intact at the start of the third lap, Kopecky once again sprinted for full points and bonuses ahead of her teammates, overall leader Mischa Bredewold and Lorena Wiebes.

Alice Palazzi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) reached the top of the third ascent of the Gößnitz first and so padded out her lead in the mountains classification with three stages to go.

As the peloton split over the ascent and into the remaining kilometres of the penultimate lap, Sandra Alonso (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling) launched an attack that resulted in a solo breakaway with 36km to go.

A crash in the peloton saw Kasper, Lach, and Hanna Ludwig go down, but reports suggest that all riders were back up and in the race for the last lap.

Alonso held a 15-second lead inside 10km remaining in the stage and was joined by Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Parkhotel Valkenburg) in the final kilometres.

The pair were swept up inside one kilometre from the finish line as the bunch sprinted across the line with Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx) taking the win, Wiebes in second, but Alonso holding on for third.

Results :