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Energiewacht Tour 2011

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Stage 3 - Visser wins and takes 10 second lead overall

Aduard, 123.6km

Race Writeup

Adrie Visser (HTC Highroad) had probably the best win of her career today on stage 3 of the Energiewacht Tour 2011. In Aduard the Dutch rider won the sprint ahead of Loes Gunnewijk (Netherlands Bloeit) and Russian Olga Zabelinskaya (Diadora-Pasta Zara).

In a small bunch sprint behind, Emma Johansson (Hitec Products UCK) won ahead of Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) and overnight leader Ina-Yoko teutenberg (HTC Highroad)

The third stage was very technical. Riders had to navigate 2m wide roads with deep ditches at either side. After 12.5 km of racing, the pace at the front of the race was high as the peloton navigated the very narrow roads through Den Ham. The peloton split into three groups. Tone Hatteland (Hitec) attacked and forced the bunch to chase. It came back together, but not for long. 

At 25km, in Lauwerzijl  Olga Zabelinskaya (Diadora Pasta Zara was on the front driving the pace and created a break in the bunch. Eleven riders broke away. Visser and Ian-Yoko Teutenberg (HTC Highroad) was there with Kirsten Wild and Monique van de Ree (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), Marianne Vos, Annemiek of Vleuten, Sarah Duester and Loes Gunnewijk (Nederland Bloeit), Liesbet de Vocht (Belgian National Team) and Johansson (Hitec) and Olga Zabelinskaja (Diadora Pasta Zara). The group worked will together to gradually increase their lead. 

In the chase behind, there was a lack of organisation. Tibco, Colavita Forno d'Asolo, Dolmans Landscaping and Garmin Cervelo all missed the break but could not seem to commit to a chase. The leaders managed to get an advantage of just over 7 minutes with 50km of the race still left. By the time the leaders reached the sprint at 94.3km, which was won by Teutenberg, the chase was gone out of the main peloton and they had fallen 10 minutes behind. 

After the sprint, that attacks started, Gunnewjik attacked and managed to gain 15 seconds lead. Visser and  Zabelinskaja went after her and the group came back together with 18km to go. 

Johansson attacked and Visser and van de Ree chased her to close the gaps. Wild and Duester managed to touch wheels and crashed and had to chase hard to get back into the race with 17km still to go. 

At 14km, Gunnewijk attacked again. This time Zabelinskaya went with her and Visser was forced to chase again. The three riders moved into the lead. In the group behind Teutenberg controlled any chase. Van de Ree lost contact with the group. With 10km to go Duester also lost contact. The three leaders increased the gap to 57 seconds with 2km to go. 

In the sprint, Visser was too strong and easily took the win ahead Gunnewjik. Zabelinskaya lost contact at 25m to go and rolled over the line third. 

Visser now hold as 10 second lead in the General Classification ahead of Gunnewijk. Overnight leader Teutenberg sits in third, 39 seconds back. Vos is at 48 seconds ahead of Johansson ant 1 minute 1 second. 

The final stage is 5 laps of a 12km circuit in Haren.

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Post Race Comments

Adrie Visser (HTC Highroad) was very happy with her win today, "That was awesome. We were not sure how it would go. We were two against four [in reference to the four Nederland Bloeit riders in the break]. We wanted to make sure we protected the leaders jersey," said Visser

Ronnie Lauke (Sport Director) was impressed with the performance of Adrie Visser today, After Ina-Yoko Teutenberg's win on Friday's stage, Visser's win is the second for HTC-Highroad in the Dutch stage race - and the first for the Dutchwoman this season. "Adrie is very pleased because she's managed to get her first win of the season on home soil here in Holland," commented Ronnie Lauke.

"And I'm absolutely delighted with the way that she and Ina rode today.It was very windy so we knew it was going to be hectic from the start, and after 25 kilometers there was a break of eleven with only Adrie and Ina in it from our team whilst our main rivals, Nederland Bloeit, had four. I was pretty upset that we'd not got any more riders from our team in the break. We knew Bloeit was going to start playing cat and mouse and get the attacks going. But Adrie and Ina handled all the attacks brilliantly, and they even managed to turn it around and take control." added Lauke

Finally a move of three went clear, with Visser present for HTC-Highroad, which was a relief to Lauke. "When Adrie got away with the other two riders, we had Ina controlling the break behind and Adrie could drive the break and got both the lead and the stage win. Between the two of them, they handled the race perfectly."

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