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Cédrine Kerbaol finished off perfect tactics from EF Education-Oatly to win stage 3 at La Vuelta Femenina and relegate a frustrated Lotte Kopecky into runner-up position yet again.
Kristen Faulkner attacked with just over 10km to go to stretch things out in the hilly transition stage across Spain’s Galicia region. EF sent Alice Towers up the road and Kerbaol countered in her wake with about 2km to go.
The Frenchwoman soloed home for the big win, and she dedicated her victory to teammate Noemi Rüegg, a winner of the opening stage, but who crashed out in stage 2.
“It feels crazy because we are riding so well as a team. We’re doing the best we’ve ever done before,” Kerbaol said. “We went from very up to very down after Noemi crashed. We think a lot about her.
“It’s a mix of emotion and we are now very up again. My team did best ever race today. It was a dream.”
EF’s fireworks disrupted SD Worx-ProTime, and relegated pre-stage favorite Kopecky to second for the second time this Vuelta. She suffered a mechanical in Monday’s stage 2 to go 0-for-3 so far.
Another chance for Kopecky
Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) struggled to hold the wheel at times in the frenetic finale but got back on in time to defend the red leader’s jersey.
The Paris-Roubaix winner is 4 seconds ahead of Kopecky going into Wednesday’s 115.6km fourth stage from Monforte de Lemos to Antas de Ulla.
The rolling terrain should provide Kopecky with yet another chance to try to snag a win before the looming mountains deeper in La Vuelta, with the Angliru waiting this weekend.
La Vuelta Femenina stage 3 results
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