In the final meters of the third stage of the Women’s Tour of Spain on Tuesday, Olivia Baril (Movistar) saw the Dutchwoman Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) open the machine to seek the stage victory. The Quebecer did not give up and gave everything to finish the race in third place, the best result of her career in a stage of a Grand Tour.
Several cyclists were involved in a massive fall 2.6 kilometers from the finish. Baril was one of around thirty athletes who were spared by this incident, as were her teammates Liane Lippert and Sheyla Gutierrez.
The three members of the Movistar team managed to place themselves at the front of the peloton with less than 2 kilometers to go.
Lippert was the one who put the finishing touches on Baril’s sprint preparation. The German was quickly overtaken by Vos, three-time road world champion, who raced to victory. Positioned on the outside, Baril battled until the last second with Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) for second place. Kool finally beat Baril, who finished third.
“With 30 kilometers to go, our technical director told us that I was going to do the sprint at the end. The whole team was together at that moment and everyone started working to achieve this goal. They really trusted me. It brought a little stress because I wanted to do something good. This result gives me confidence. I think I can aim for a good ranking overall, we will see in the coming days,” commented Olivia Baril.
Also spared from the fall that occurred in the last three kilometers of the race, Magdeleine Vallières-Mill (EF Education-Cannondale) managed to fight her way through the final sprint to finish tenth. For her, this is also the best result of her career in a Grand Tour.
“We wanted to go for Alison (Jackson) in the finale, but she fell in the big fall. I managed to get around it, but I was the only one in the team and I didn’t really know what to do next. I managed to position myself well, because I really didn’t expect to find myself in the top 10, I’m really happy,” mentioned Vallières-Mill.
Victim of a fall at the end of the race the day before, Clara Émond (EF Education-Cannondale) suffered a fracture in her left elbow and had to withdraw from the Vuelta. For her part, Adèle Normand (Eneicat – CMTeam) was not able to complete the third stage.
Thanks to her victory today, Marianne Vos climbs to second place in the provisional general classification, one second behind the Hungarian Blanka Vas (SD Worx – Protime). Alberta’s Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale), winner of the second stage, follows in third place (+10 seconds).
Olivia Baril is the highest ranked Quebecer overall in 18e place (+19 seconds), while Magdeleine Vallières-Mill is in 24e place (+20 seconds).
The Tour of Spain will continue on Wednesday with a 142.3 kilometer stage between Molina de Aragon and Zaragoza.
reference: www.lapresse.ca