Black Mountain top 10 highlight of aggressive week for underdogs CAMS-Basso
The Women's Tour 2022 overview
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(Image credit: Getty Images)
Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) wins stage 5 at Black Mountain(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com )
Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) won stage 4 and took over as new GC leader(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes wins stage 3 in Gloucester wearing the race leader's jersey(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM wins stage 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
Clara Copponi of FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope celebrates winning stage 1 and taking the yellow leader's jersey to begin 2022 The Women's Tour (Image credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
The Italian champion accelerated on the final kilometre of stage 6 to open gaps in the peloton and then held on to finish in third place in the final sprint, only beaten by stage winner Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) and runner-up Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope).
The four bonus seconds that she earned for third place gave Longo Borghini a one-second lead over Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) in GC to take the overall victory, while Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) finished third at five seconds back.
Reigning Italian road race champion Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) won the queen stage of this year’s Women’s Tour atop the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire on Friday. Atop the 7.2-kilometre climb, she sprinted ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) for the victory,
Race leader Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) came past Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) on the final 50 metres to finish third and took a four-second time bonus.
As a result of the bonus seconds on the line, Brown retained her overall lead for another day, but she goes into Saturday’s final stage level on time with Longo Borghini. Niewiadoma, the 2017 champion, sits just two seconds back.
The race concludes with stage 6 on Saturday in Oxfordshire between Chipping Norton and Oxford city centre.
Australian Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) won stage 4 of the Women's Tour in a sprint of three riders, beating Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo).
Brown attacked from a front group of 10 riders that had formed on the day's climbs, and the duo of Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma caught her with less than 3km to go. Brown was able to power past the Italian champion on the final 100 metres to win the stage, while Niewiadoma edged Longo Borghini for second place.
Now in the GC lead, Brown holds a 4-second advantage over Niewiadoma, who is second. Longo Borghini is another two seconds down in third. Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM), falls to eighth overall but will wear the pink points jersey on stage 5.
Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) made it two-for-two on the podium with a victory on stage 3 of the Women's Tour. She outsprinted Alexandra Manly (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) and Coryn Labecki (Team Jumbo-Visma) from a reduced group on the rain-soaked streets in Gloucester.
With her second victory in as many days, the Dutch rider took over the overall lead from Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), who didn’t finish with the first peloton. Wiebes has a 13-second advantage on Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) and Manly.
A three-rider breakaway - Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma), Christine Majerus (Team SD Worx) and Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo) - was caught on the second classified climb of the day where Canyon-SRAM and Team SD Worx put the pressure on and fractured the peloton. Eventually, a front group of 17 riders emerged, from which Wiebes scored the win.
Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) won stage 2 of The Women's Tour in Harlow from a bunch sprint. Following several bike lengths behind were Barbara Guarischi (Movistar Team), ahead of Shari Bossuyt (Canyon-SRAM), to round out the podium.
After a solo breakaway by Sammie Stuart (CAMS-Basso Bikes) was pulled back, Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo) and Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) went on the attack, the duo caught just before the two-kilometre mark.
Due to bonus seconds picked up in the intermediate sprints, stage 1 winner Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) continues to lead the general classification, three seconds ahead of Maike van der Duin (Le Col-Wahoo) and four seconds ahead of Wiebes.
Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) sprinted to the stage 1 victory of The Women’s Tour on Monday. Trailing behind in second was Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ), followed by Elena Cecchini (Team SD Worx) in third.
However, a crash in the final few hundred metres of the opening stage ended with several race favourites going down, including Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM), who won all three stages and the overall at RideLondon Classique and past Women's Tour champion Coryn Labecki (Team Jumbo-Visma). The run-in to Bury St Edmunds occurred on wet and narrow roads, with cars lining the sections in the final kilometre.
The only attack that managed to stick on the 142.1km stage was made by Danielle Shrosbree (CAMS-Basso Bikes). She had a 1:10 advantage with 35km to go when the action was paused for almost a full hour, due to a road accident on the course in front of the peloton. Once racing resumed, Shrosbree, later named the most combative rider, was reeled in 15 km from the line.
The stage win was the French rider's first career UCI victory.
Dates: June 6-11, 2022 Distance: 734.1km Start: Colchester Finish: Oxford
Join Cyclingnews for coverage all six days, and check in after each stage for our full report, results, gallery, news and features.
Organisers SweetSpot returns The Women's Tour to its traditional summer spot on the Women's WorldTour calendar with six stages held from June 6-11. This year's event will feature what organisers have called 'the toughest summit finish' in the history of the event on stage 5 atop Black Mountain.
The Women's Tour, which began in 2014 and has been part of the Women's WorldTour since 2016, was cancelled in 2020 and postponed until later in the year in 2021.
The UCI has mandated that a race must provide at least 45 minutes of live coverage in order to qualify for its top-tier status as of 2020, and although live coverage plans fell through for the race last year, organisers have confirmed live broadcasting of all six stages in 2022.
The race has been won by Marianne Vos (2014), Lisa Brennauer (2015), Lizzie Deignan (2016, 2019), Kasia Niewiadoma (2017), Coryn Labecki (2018) and Demi Vollering (2021).
Thirteen of the 14 UCI Women’s WorldTour squads will compete in this year’s race as the Women’s Tour gets set for its joint largest field ever with 102 riders across 17 teams.
Canyon-SRAM Racing includes the 2017 champion and 2019 runner-up Niewiadoma on its roster, while Jumbo-Visma brings past winner Labecki with British star Anna Henderson. Returning to compete in her second Women’s Tour is Team DSM’s Wiebes. The Dutch sprinter claimed back-to-back victories in last year’s race and will be among the favourites for the opening day victory in Bury St Edmunds.
The Grand Départ for The Women's Tour will be jointly hosted by Colchester and Suffolk, as the race begins Monday, June 6 with stage 1 taking place the two cities, the finish in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. The next two stages feature first-ever visits to Harlow and Gloucestershire, June 7 and June 8, respectively.
Subsequent legs of the race will visit Wales for two days - stage 4 on June 9 and the mountaintop finish at Black Mountain for stage 5 on June 10. The race will conclude in Oxfordshire on Saturday, June 11, with stage 6 between Chipping Norton, in the Cotswolds, and the heart of Oxford, between historic Chipping Norton and Oxford’s world-famous city centre.
