Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) was first over the finishing line at Pembrey Country Park after enduring the challenging Welsh terrain and the blustery conditions, Lizzie Deignan (Trek Segafredo) secured eighth place and claimed her second overall victory of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour – making history as she is the first woman, ever, to take the honours twice at the OVO Energy Women’s Tour.
The home county girl, Manon Lloyd (Drops), got the sixth and final stage of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour underway when she suitably led the peloton around the Carmarthen Velodrome. Undoubtedly, this was not only a surreal, but also a very special moment for Lloyd as she got to race on home-ground and return to where it all begun.
Right from the very off, the pace of the peloton was high – demonstrating that with just one second between first and second position in the GC, tensions were high and this made for a very exciting race. With just 3km under their belts, the peloton was very active with several small attacks taking place as a small group attempted to go clear in the opening sections of the race.
The first break-away came in Felingwmisaf as Susanne Anderse (Team Sunweb) attacked, putting 25 seconds between her and the peloton to position herself as the lone leader with 118km to go. However, just minutes later Anderse was caught as the peloton put their foot on the gas, and increased the pace. Even as early as 12km raced, the riders were displaying a fully-committed performance – the pace reaching such a level that a small grupetto of approximately eight riders formed.
Soon after a split in the peloton was formed and 11 riders broke-away with a 17-second advantage. The breakaway group, which consisted of: Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb), Anna Christian (Drops), Grace Brown (Mitchelton Scott), Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans), Romy Kasper (Cipollini) , Hannah Barnes (WMN Cycling), Ellen van Dijk (Trek Segafredo), Leah Thomas (Bigla Team), Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv), Eugenie Duval (FDj-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope) and Janneke Ensing (WNT-ROTOR), continued to increased their advantage to 1:35 seconds with 99km to go as they travelled through Llansawel.
The riders quickly closed in on Talley, the location of their first intermediate sprint of the stage. Thomas gained enough points to lead on this contest, closely followed by Rivera and then, van Dijk. However, the points scored by Rivera at the first Eisberg sprint was enough to place her in an uncatchable position and secured her possession of the Eisberg Sprint Jersey. The breakaway capitalised on this intermediate sprint as they extended their advantage to two minutes, with 97km to go.
An enforced neutralisation brought the action temporarily to a close in Llansawel, with 26.5km completed, for approximately twenty minutes, to allow emergency services to attend to a non-race related medical issue.
As action got back underway, the first QOM climb crept ever closer, and the riders encountered the brutal Welsh terrain as they faced the category three Bethlehem Hill. Rivera attacked over the climb to take maximum points, seeing her push on ahead of the breakaway group. The ruthless nature of the climb took its toll and reduced the breakaway’s advantage to 1:15-seconds. However, the breakaway quickly reduced the deficit and caught Rivera to reunite the 11 front riders with 71km still left to tackle.
The much needed opportunity to recompose was shortly lived for the riders, as just over 10km later the second and final QOM climb stood waiting to be conquered. The riders contested with the category one Black Mountain – a section of the stage which certainly proposed a sting in the tail for the competitors. Just 1km into the 8km at 5% incline saw the breakaway split into three groups. An attack from Barnes, van Dijk, Thomas, Ensing and Rivera made the leading group a five, and after conquering the climb, they possessed a 16-second lead over the remaining breakaway group and a 1:52 advantage over the peloton, with 57km ahead for the riders. Thomas led in terms of points on this gruelling QOM, closely followed in second by van Dijk and then by Barnes.
After chasing hard, Blaak and Brown caught the front five, which made it a leading group of 7 as they entered into Brynamman. However, after an exerted effort and an increase in pace once more, the peloton were hot on their tails and eventually caught the leading group, diminishing their advantage with 39km to go.
As the race entered into its final sections, the riders quickly embarked upon the second intermediate sprint of the stage in Penygroes, where valuable bonus seconds were on the line. Lizzie Deignan certainly put her sprinting legs on and was able to put an extra second between her and Kasia Niewiadoma (WMN Cycling) on the GC.
As they hit the 25km count-down, an attack was instigated by Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb) and Lizzy Banks (Bigla), putting distance between themselves and the peloton which was led by Trek Segafredo’s van Dijk. This made for a period where the peloton was particularly active, as Martina Alzini (Bigla) and Charlotte Becker (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope) also attempted to join the breakaway group, but the bunch prevented any attempt at creating a sustained advantage and the leading group were quickly, once again, accompanied by the peloton.
The riders continued to make repeated attacks from within the bunch, and maintained the aggressive pace as the race reached its concluding kilometres.
Nadia Quagliotto (Cipollini Team) took her chance with 13km to go and broke-away, continually increasing her lead to 28-seconds until there was action emerging from within the pack, the pace of which enhanced with ferocity. As the distance remaining entered into single-figures, this saw Brown attack and close in on the lone leader. These two women conjured an 18-second lead over the peloton as the race entered into the final 5km.
Tensions were rising as the riders closed in on the final stretch in Pembrey Park, and as the pace was taken up a gear for the home-straight, the breakaway group was caught with just 2km to go. This made for a very exciting finish, as after a bunch-sprint where the riders delivered a fully-committed performance, Pieters was first to cross the finishing line and secure victory in the 6th and final stage of the Tour. As well as sealing the overall victory, Deignan also obtained the Breast Cancer Care Points Jersey and the HSBC UK British Cycling Best British Rider Jersey. Niewiadoma won the SKODA Queen of the Mountains jersey and Rivera was the winner of the Eisberg Sprints Jersey.
Image credits: SWPix
