Lorena Wiebes secures victory in fifth stage of Women's Tour in Essex
She crossed the finish line first in the penultimate leg of the Women's Tour.
Last updated 8th Oct 2021
Lorena Wiebes has won the fifth stage of the Women's Tour in Essex.
She becomes only the second rider in the history of the race to claim back-to-back stage victories.
She produced a dominant sprint to win in the Colchester to Clacton leg.
Wiebes (Team DSM) beat newly-crowned world champion Elisa Balsamo (Valcar – Travel & Service) to the victory, while Drops – Le Col s/b TEMPUR rider Maria Van’t Geloof won a close-fought battle for third.
Only Dutchwoman Wiebes’ compatriot Marianne Vos had previously won consecutive stages of the UK’s most prestigious women’s race, a run that coincidentally started when Vos also won in Clacton-on-Sea during the 2014 edition.
Race leader Demi Vollering finished safely within the peloton to move closer to being crowned the race’s overall winner tomorrow in Felixstowe.
Vollering retains a 1:09 lead over Juliette Labous (Team DSM) going into Saturday's final stage, while Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle - Aquitaine) reduced her deficit to 1:16 after picking up bonus seconds in the day's two Eisberg sprints.
“We put Liane Lippert in the front for the chase and everything was under control actually so that was good” said Wiebes afterwards.
“With the lead-out we were a bit too early in the front. It was a bit chaotic but in the last bend I found my way to the front and almost directly started my sprint. So I came with some speed from behind and it worked out pretty good we controlled the day.”
Vollering said: "My team were totally in control today,"
"They went on the front and did a few turns and keep the speed a bit high and then bring back the break so that was good.
"Tomorrow we need to keep it together and make it a good race again. We don’t have a plan yet; we need to see first, look a bit better at the route and then we will see."
Thanks to her victory, Wiebes moves into the lead of the Sigma Sports points jersey, two points ahead of Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo), who added a fourth-place finish to her second (Banbury) and third (Southend-on-Sea) already this week.
Elise Chabbey (Canyon SRAM Racing) and Nina Kessler (Team TIBCO Silicon - Valley Bank) retained their ŠKODA Queen of the Mountains and Eisberg sprints jerseys respectively. The pair only need to finish Saturday's final stage to secure victory in those competitions.