Vuelta Femenina: Solo raid nets victory on stage 3 for Cedrine Kerbaol

Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) won stage 3 of the Vuelta Femenina with a trademark attack into a descent.

After a move by her teammate Alice Towers on a cobbled climb with 2.5km to go was reeled in, the Frenchwoman counterattacked into the descent, quickly opened up a gap, and held off the chasers to the finish by four seconds.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) won the sprint of the chasing peloton to finish second ahead of Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Liane Lippert (Movistar).

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Due to bonus seconds, Kopecky moves within two seconds of Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) who was struggling in the final but managed to finish in the peloton to narrowly defend her red jersey.

"It feels crazy. We already won with Noemi [Rüegg], she took the red, and after that, she crashed. So we went from very high to very low, and now we are back up. We think a lot about her, it's a mix of a lot of emotions. My team did the best ever race, Kristen [Faulkner] tried to attack in the final, then Alice attacked as well. There were only four or five girls who could follow, and as soon as they took her back, I countered. This one is for the team," said Kerbaol after her victory.

Going into the race, EF Education-Oatly wanted to focus on a GC result, but the team decided to go for the stage win on stage 3.

"Before the Vuelta, I told my sport directors it would be nice to win a stage as well, and they were like, 'let's focus on the GC'. At the briefing today, we were like, 'okay, there is a nice finish, let's try everything we can'. And we tried it. I was just waiting for this moment. The group was really reduced, there are already three days of racing in the legs, the girls start to be a bit tired in general," said Kerbaol.

How it unfolded

Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Lidl-Trek) and Sterre Vervloet (Lotto-Intermarché) attacked only 2km into the 121.2km stage and quickly built a two-minute gap. A chase group consisting of Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health), Justine Gégu (Mayenne-Monbana-MyPie), and Marina Garau (Vini Fantini-BePink) tried to bridge to the front duo but eventually gave up and waited for the peloton.

Wilson-Haffenden and Vervloet increased their advantage to 3:10 minutes with 91km to go when FDJ United-Suez started to control the race for red jersey Franziska Koch, and the gap went down to 1:19 minutes before going back up to over two minutes. Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) suffered a crash but could both continue the race and finished in the peloton.

On a climb 41km from the line, Vervloet could no longer follow Wilson-Haffenden’s pace, and the Australian continued solo. She briefly increased her advantage again, but as Visma-Lease a Bike and EF Education-Oatly joined the chase, the gap narrowed to 45 seconds at the 20km mark.

Wilson-Haffenden won the intermediate sprint in Arteixo but was reeled in on the climb that followed, resetting the race with 14.7km to go. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) went to the front of the race to set the pace until Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) launched an attack. Blasi followed the Polish champion, and although they did not get a gap, it contributed to reducing the front group to only 15 riders.

As the road flattened out, the second group came back to make it a peloton of about 30, and the pace by Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) saw Koch dropped from the group as the road kicked up again, putting her overall lead in danger, though she came back on the following descent.

Faulkner attacked on the descent with 12.1km to go and started the next climb with a five-second lead, but was caught soon after. 6.9km from the line, Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked again with Lippert in her wheel. Blasi jumped across the gap, then Mischa Bredewold, Anna van der Breggen (both SD Worx-Protime), Ferrand-Prévot, Van Dam, and Moolman-Pasio also bridged to the front, but the group did not push on over the top of the climb, allowing things to come back together.

An attack by Van Dam and a high-speed descent split the peloton again, but a group of just over 30 riders formed eventually, just before Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked. She was followed by Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) and Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ), who were first onto the cobblestone section starting with 4.4km to go.

Towers briefly took the lead of the group before Josie Talbot (Liv AlUla Jayco) pushed past with her teammates, Letizia Paternoster, Ruby Roseman-Gannon, and Monica Trinca Colonel on her wheel. Towers attacked on a short but steep ramp, with only Paternoster being able to follow, though Ferrand-Prévot, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Lippert, and Kerbaol quickly bridged the gap.

As more riders were coming back, Kerbaol launched her attack from the back of the group just before the cobblestone section ended with 2.2km to go, flying down the descent and eking out second by second.

Kerbaol started the final 300-metre ramp to the finish at the Estadio Riazor with an eight-second lead and held on to four seconds on the line to win the stage.

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