Whitelaw leads in Tour de l’Ardeche
Wednesday hosted the second and third stages of the Tour de l’Ardeche, a women’s cycling tour in France. Lizzie Armitstead finished third in the 3.5 kilometer second stage, an individual time-trial, and went on the win the 90km afternoon stage.
“It was a nice good victory today with great teamwork again from Lieselot Decroix and Patricia Schwager who did great work in the first part of the race, enabling us to have four riders in the front,” said Armitstead. “I remembered the course from last year. With 600 metres to go I took a fast corner and had a small gap and I just gave it full gas to the finish and nobody could pass me.”
The time-trial was won by Australian cyclist Ruth Corset in 5:32, eight seconds ahead of Cristel Ferrier-Bruneau and Armitstead. The third stage was characterized by an early 17-rider breakaway which put Tiffany Cromwell in the lead toward the end of the race, before Armitstead’s Cervelo TestTeam set her up for a sprint finish.
"We decided to go for the sprint with Lizzie and she was able to win it,” said team director Egon van Kessel. “There are some heavy stages ahead and the team is still in a good position. We now have several options for the GC with Sharon [Laws] for sure, but also with Lizzie and Claudia."
Vicki Whitelaw took control of the race when she gained one second on the former leader, Armitstead’s teammate Sharon Laws, who won the first stage in a sprint ahead of Whitelaw after the pair made a successful breakaway, finishing the 112km stage 1:41 ahead of the peloton.
"My legs were good today, I felt that I was stronger than Vicki, as she mostly followed in my wheel and I was able to beat her in the sprint," said Laws. "I have to say thanks to the team, today we were the smartest and strongest team.”
Armitstead finished the first stage in third, at the head of the peloton, and stands in third overall. Laws stands in second thanks to her stage win, the first UCI-sanctioned victory of her career, only one second behind Whitelaw, the current overall leader.
“Sharon is a really good rider who has given the team a lot of support this year though she had never won a race," said van Kessel. "We took (Amanda) Spratt back and then Sharon Laws attacked and took Vicky Whitelaw with her, together they took quite a big advantage."
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