Lorena Wiebes won her fourth stage of the Tour of Britain Women as Kim le Court- Pienaar wrapped up the overall title.
On a twisty finish the SD Worx-Protime sprinter benefited from a slick and dedicated lead-out from her team to enter the finishing straight in prime position.
As she launched out of the final corner Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) came off her team-mate Zoe Bäckstedt’s tried to contest the win but couldn’t come close to Wiebes and ended up being pipped by Lara Gilespie (UAE Team L’Imad) for second.
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The Dutchwoman, who has dominated any stage that didn’t finish up a climb in this year’s race, produced another vintage performance to cement her place as the best sprinter in the race, if not the world.
Further back in the pack Le Court- Pienaar finished safely to preserve the green leader’s jersey, which she snatched with an attacking ride on stage three’s finish up The Great Orme.
Wiebes’s win also had the effect of lifting her up the GC into second place, knocking Liane Lippert (Movistar) down to third. Unsurprisingly she claimed the red points jersey too.
Wiebes is putting together another blistering season with 19 wins in just 37 race days so far. That includes two stage wins at the Tour de France, which provided the foundation for her green points jersey win.
It’s possible she could yet eclipse her most winning season, which was last year, in which she won 25 races.
It was not certain Wiebes would get a chance to contest the win as the break held on until just under the flamme rouge.
A trio of Alice Towers (Great Britain), Eva van Agt (FDJ-United Suez) and Sara Martín (Movistar) had gone off the front in the early kilometres outside Royal Leamington Spa and built a lead of over two minutes.
That lead held until after the race’s final climb up Burton Dassett. Following that climb Wiebes’s SD Worx-Protime team came to the front of the peloton and set about reducing the gap.
With 20km left to race the gap had dropped to 1.30 and the three out-front were starting to show signs of fatigue.
However, they fought valiantly and had a gap of over a minute at the 10km to go mark.
With more teams including Human Powered Health putting riders to work on the chase the break’s chances were dwindling and they were eventually caught just as the race reached its final kilometre.
From there, Bäckstedt swiftly hit the front to set up Canyon-SRAM’s sprinter but as soon as the sprint opened there was no matching Wiebes.
Result
Tour of Britain Women, stage 5: Royal Leamington Spa > Royal Leamington Spa (123km)
1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime in 3:02:29
2. Lara Gilespie (Irl) UAE Team L’Imad
3. Chiara Consonnni (Ita) Canyon-SRAM
4. Zoe Bäckstedt (GBr) Canyon-SRAM
5. Pfeiffer Georgi (GBr) Picnic-PostNL
6. Nienke Veenhoven (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
7. Josie Nelson (GBr) Picni-PostNL
8. Caroline Andersson (Swe) Liv AlUla Jayco
9. Millie Couzens (GBr) Fenix-Premier Tech
10. Maggie Coles-Lyster (Can) Human Powered Health
General classification
1. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, in 17:02:04
2. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +19s
3. Liane Lippert (Ger) Movistar, +24s
4. Caroline Andersson (Swe) Liv AlUla Jayco, +39s.
5. Femke De Vries (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +44s
6. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) UAE Team L’Imad, +46s
7. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
8. Cecile Uttrup Ludwid (Den) Canyon-SRAM, both s.t.
9. Josie Nelson (GBr) Picnic-PostNL, +56s
10. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +1:06
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