Dutch rider outsprints breakaway after tough stage
Adrie Visser (HTC-Columbia) won the third stage of the Thüringen Rundfahrt, the Rund um Greiz, after outsprinting the rest of the breakaway. She beat compatriot Iris Slappendel (Cervélo TestTeam) and 2007 World champion Marta Bastianelli (Fenixs-Petrogadgets) at the end of the rolling 128.7km stage.
“I’m feeling a lot more confident about my sprinting recently and that’s made all the difference,” said Visser after the stage. “Ellen Van Dijk has given me some great leadouts recently and that’s really helped, I’ve won field sprints here behind breakaways after up to 130 kilometres racing. Today I was away in a group of 11 with [teammates] Luise [Keller] and Noemi Cantele, so we were in a very good position strategically.
“It was a tough day, with maybe 1800 metres of climbing in total,” she added, “but after doing well in the previous stages I felt good.”
A group of fifteen riders escaped the peloton with 25km to go under the impetus of an attack from Keller. The former German champion attacked again in the last few kilometres, and when she was caught Cantele led Visser to the front, where she sprinted to win ahead of Slappendel and Bastianelli.
“It’s my first win as an HTC-Columbia rider and it’s a very good feeling finally to get that victory,” said Visser. “Now we’ll see what Noemi can do in the overall. She’s third overall and with tomorrow’s 19km time trial and two more tough days after that, I think she’s got a good chance.”
Having finished fourth on the stage, and having picked up a bonus second in an intermediate sprint, Olga Zabelinskaya (Safi-Pasta Zara) continues to lead the race.
1. Adrie Visser (Ned) HTC-Columbia
2. Iris Slappendel (Ned) Cervélo TestTeam
3. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) Fenixs-Petrogadgets
4. Olga Zabelinskaja (Rus) Safi-Pasta Zara
5. Julia Martisova (Rus) Gauss-RDZ-Ormu
6. Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Gauss-RDZ-Ormu
7. Andrea Bosman (Ned) Netherlands National Team
8. Petra Dijkman (Bel) RedSun Cycling @ 3s
9. Elela Kuchinskja (Rus) Gauss-RDZ-Ormu
10. Irene van den Broek (Ned) Netherlands National Team
Standings after stage 2
1. Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi-Pasta Zara
2. Elena Kuchinskaya (Rus) Gauss-RDZ-Ormu @ 1’22”
3. Noemi Cantele (Ita) HTC-Columbia @ 1’30”
4. Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Gauss-RDZ-Ormu @ 1’33”
5. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) Fenixs-Petrogadgets @ 2’54”