Wiebes wins, but crash involving Vollering and Pieterse disrupts final stage 3 of Tour de France Femmes

A major surprise: that was how we headlined Mavi García's stage victory on Sunday. The 41-year-old rider from Liv AlUla Jayco stayed ahead of the peloton with a late breakaway and pulled off a stunt. Repeating that stunt on Monday would be a little more difficult. The 163.5-kilometer stage was relatively easy. We started Monday morning without Elisa Longo Borghini, as the Italian outsider for the overall victory was unable to start due to illness.

It didn't take long on Monday for four riders to break away. Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Sara Martín (Movistar), Clémence Latimier (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), and Catalina Anais Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) secured a spot in the early breakaway, which suited the peloton just fine.

But not everyone agreed, and so we saw Alison Avoine (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) and Franziska Brausse (CERATIZIT), among others, set off the chase. The pair tried hard, but in the end they were caught by the peloton.

The lead of the four riders at the front continued to increase: the peloton kept the early breakaway at around four minutes. In the peloton, there was another crash, involving Marion Bunel, among others. The young talent from Visma | Lease a Bike was able to continue quickly.

It looked like it was going to be a stage without too much action, as we saw a classic race in which the peloton gradually closed in on the leading group. However, after the intermediate sprint, the race was shaken up by a crash, in which Eugenia Bujak (Cofidis) seemed to be the most severely affected. All the riders who crashed were able to continue later.

It was mainly up to SD Worx-Protime to set the pace. With top favorite Lorena Wiebes in the team, that was only logical, but CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto occasionally helped out. Nevertheless, it was often up to the European champion's teammates, which is why it took a while for the leading group to come into view. With 10 kilometers to go, the gap was still 30 seconds.

At that point, things started to fall apart among the women at the front. Jackson countered an attack by Martín. Latimier was done, but the remaining trio couldn't find a way to work together. Soto had noticed Jackson and Martín's breakaways and kept her legs smartly still until she launched her attack. The Chilean champion was later caught up again, and the trio was caught 5 kilometers from the finish.

It was time for the sprint. The sprint trains were set up, and Wiebes was sticking close to Kopecky, but Visma | Lease a Bike also came forward for Vos. However, a nasty crash occurred in the final 3 kilometers, involving Demi Vollering, Chloé Dygert, Puck Pieterse, and Elisa Balsamo, among others. The Dutch Tour winner of 2023 in particular remained on the ground for a long time, as did Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education - Oatly).

So it was a sprint from a thinned-out group. Wiebes, Vos, Ally Wollaston (FDJ-SUEZ), and other fast ladies had avoided the crash. With Balsamo's crash, the European champion had one less competitor. She got an ideal lead-out from Kopecky, and Vos couldn't get out of her wheel. Wiebes went from far back and finished it off easily. Vollering crossed the finish line well behind, but didn't lose any time due to the 5-kilometer rule.