Sarah Roy sprinted to victory in Royal Leamington Spa at the end of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour’s longest stage as Great Britain’s Dani Rowe maintained her place in the overall top three after three stages of racing.
Fourth place for overnight leader Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb), combined with time bonuses taken at the intermediate Eisberg Sprints in Kenilworth and Wellesbourne, extended her lead by one second, with Marianne Vos second in the classification having finished Friday’s stage in third place.
Rowe (WaowDeals Pro Cycling) remains the top Brit and wears the Adnams Best British Rider jersey, four seconds behind team-mate Vos, while Rivera continues to hold both the Eisberg Sprints and Breast Cancer Care Points jerseys.
But the day belonged to Roy, who won a stage at Chesterfield during the 2017 race, putting this success down to the work of her team and their thorough preparation.
"In the final kilometre I was really well looked after," said the Mitchelton-SCOTT rider. "Any important parts of the race we try to research beforehand and we talk about it a lot, and we go and look at on Google Street View, so we were really well researched today and I was really well prepared. I think that helped.
"I wasn’t confident coming over the climbs, I didn’t have a great day on Thursday so I really tried to turn it around. You saw it, I was a little bit overwhelmed at the finish there and had a few tears.
"My team have given me the opportunity today and I thought I’m going to take this one and give it all I’ve got. You’ve seen them work their butts off out there covering all their attacks and I was just super thankful for their work out there today, so to pull it off is the nicest feeling."
Another day in blue Giving my teddy away to a little girl in the crowd made me so happy!! Maybe even happier than she was to receive it But this is what it’s all about @thewomenstour Moments like this Thank you to Cheryl Owens for capturing. pic.twitter.com/9usQD6UW17
— Dani Rowe (@DaniKing1) June 15, 2018
Sunshine and warm temperatures welcomed the OVO Energy Women’s Tour to Warwickshire for the third time, with large crowds cheering the riders off from the centre of Atherstone on the 150km leg.
A fast start to the stage saw the racing stay together until the first Eisberg Sprint at Kenilworth, with Rivera taking the honours from Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans)
A break containing Ann-Sophie Duyck (Cervélo-Bigla) and Vita Heine (Team Hitec Products-BIRK Sport) soon went clear, eventually being caught just before the top of the day’s second SKODA Queen of the Mountains climb at Burton Dassett Country Park.
The regrouping at the front brought 35 riders together to contest the fast run back to Royal Leamington Spa, which was marked by a flurry of attacks from a multitude of teams and riders,but no cohesive move could stay away.
Coming through the sweeping left hander into the 400-metre finishing straight alongside Jephson Gardens it was Vos who led out the sprint, but Roy and Bronzini who came past on the long run to the line. Rivera took fourth, Roxanne Fournier fifth, and Rowe top Brit in tenth.
The weekend sees Stage Four take place in Worcestershire heading from Evesham to Worcester on Saturday (16 June), before the final day (Sunday 17 June) visits Wales, with Stage Five from Dolgellau to Colwyn Bay on the North Wales coast, via Snowdonia.
