At some point after crashing on stage 5, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) gained stage 6 of the Simac Girls Tour, with the ten-second time bonification additionally placing the world champion atop the ultimate normal classification.
Led out by her teammate Lorena Wiebes, Kopecky squeezed previous lone attacker Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) on the ultimate metres to take the stage forward of Wiebes and Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck).
Kopecky takes the yellow jersey off the shoulders of Franziska Koch (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) on the ultimate day, successful the GC two seconds forward of the German champion, with Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) rounding out the GC podium at seven seconds.
The way it unfolded
The ultimate stage in and round Arnhem consisted of two laps of a 45km circuit adopted by seven laps of an 8.1km ending circuit, with QOM sprints on the Zijpendaalseweg 500 metres previous the end on all however the first and final laps. The stage additionally doubled as the ultimate day within the professional peloton for Christine Majerus (SD Worx-Protime), Audrey Cordon-Ragot, and Alice Wooden (each Human Powered Well being) who retire after the 2024 season.
Jeanne Korevaar (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), wearer of the QOM jersey since successful the one earlier QOM dash on the VAMberg on stage 2, was first to the highest of the Zijpendaalseweg on the second lap to increase her lead.
Ilaria Sanguineti (Lidl-Trek) then went on a solo breakaway. The Italian was as much as 1:32 minutes forward however was reeled in simply earlier than the peloton crossed the end line to start the primary lap of the ending circuit the place Korevaar gained the QOM dash once more. Visma-Lease a Bike launched two assaults that have been each shut down by SD Worx-Protime, and Korevaar gained the third QOM dash in a row. This put her on 20 factors in whole, sufficient to take the polka-dot jersey house in the long run.
After an unsuccessful assault by Linda Riedmann (Visma-Lease a Bike), Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) received away with 44.5km to go and was rapidly joined by Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Crew ADQ), and Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime). DSM-Firmenich PostNL took up the chase and caught this transfer earlier than it may get too far-off.
39km from the end, Smulders launched her solo breakaway. Behind the 23-year-old, a chase group shaped that consisted of Wiebes, Riedmann, Rachele Barbieri, and Maeve Plouffe (each DSM-Firmenich PostNL) however was rapidly reeled in.
Longo Borghini, Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime), Roseman-Gannon, and Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) have been the subsequent to leap away, Megan Jastrab (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Ilse Pluimers (AG Insurance coverage-Soudal) bridged to the chase group, however then Wiebes additionally got here throughout, and the group was caught quickly after.
Up entrance, Smulders steadily elevated her benefit: With 4 laps or 32.4km to go, she was 13 seconds forward, and 29km from the end, she had 27 seconds in hand. Majerus attacked from the peloton and was adopted by Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Lara Gillespie (UAE Crew ADQ), Alex Manly (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Jastrab, and Wooden.
With three laps to go, Smulders was ten seconds forward of this chase group of six, with the peloton at 19 seconds. Because the chase group was caught, the pace dropped within the peloton, permitting Smulders to extend her hole. Two laps from the end, she was 43 seconds forward and comfortably within the digital GC lead, having began the stage 21 seconds down on Koch.
It was SD Worx-Protime who took up the chase, although, hoping to win the GC with Kopecky. The staff’s all-out efforts introduced the hole all the way down to 24 seconds going into the ultimate lap, however Gerritse, Majerus, and Lonneke Uneken finally dropped again after giving all that they had within the chase.
Smulders was nonetheless 12 seconds forward on the 3km mark when Swinkels attacked from the peloton. When Swinkels was caught, the tempo went out of the chase for a second earlier than Koch herself took up the gauntlet and was joined by Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime) for the final kilometres.
On the flamme rouge, Smulders had a seven-second lead over a peloton that was all the way down to solely 19 riders, partly due to a small crash on the penultimate kilometre that took down Manly and Plouffe and break up the peloton.
On the ending straight, Wiebes launched her dash early with Kopecky on her wheel and Truyen behind that whereas Barbieri was main out Koch, however Smulders was nonetheless forward. It seemed like Smulders would take the stage, however on the final 20 metres, Kopecky shot previous her and threw her bike to win the stage and the GC whereas Smulders completed fourth on the day and seventh total.
Having gained the stage 1 ITT after which misplaced all her teammates on stage 2, Zoe Bäckstedt held on to 3rd place total and gained the white U23 jersey whereas Wiebes’ three stage victories simply gained her the inexperienced factors jersey.
Outcomes
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