Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 7:03 PM
Charlotte Cole (DSM) is the final stage winner in the RideLondon Classique and thus also gained the final classification in which she was already in pole position. Dutchmen Chloe Degert and Dutchman Mike van der Duyn (both Canyon-SRAM) were left behind.
The last part of the three-day race was held in London and ran on a flat circuit which had to be completed eight times in total. Along the way, there were also three, two, and one second bonuses to be earned in two intermediate races, which can play an important role in ranking.
Israel-Premier Tech Roland’s Caroline Bohr and AWOL O’Shea’s Francesca Morgans-Slader, among others, tried to pull away in the opening stage, but the peloton didn’t let anyone get away due to the extra seconds in the intermediate sprints. In the first intermediate sprint, Chloe DeGert took three seconds, to reduce classification leader Cole’s gap to seven seconds. Eleonora Camila Gasparini (UAE Team ADQ) and Pfeiffer Gheorghe (DSM) took the remaining seconds.
Lead the Extra Hijacking Group
After an intermediate first sprint, the peloton seemed to be relaxing a bit. Three passengers were allocated space: Victoire Berto from Cofidis, Sophie van Roijen of the Netherlands from Parkhotel Valkenburg and Grace Lister from DAS-Handsling. This trio was allowed to leave the peloton for over a minute. But more importantly, the first set took advantage of the extra seconds, making Cole’s overall victory all the more certain.
With 20 kilometers to go, Trek-Segafredo decided to pick up the pace in the peloton. As a result, leadership of the leading group quickly fell. However, the peloton let the trio swim for a while. Going into the final lap, their lead was still fifteen seconds. Not long after, the front runners were caught by the peloton and the stage turned out to be a sprint.
Cabbage hits double
The sprinters’ teams then moved towards the head of the peloton. DSM, Uno-X and Liv Racing TeqFind led the peloton in the last three kilometres. Well placed, Cole started last in the straight with another teammate ahead of him. After that, the Dutch began to sprint and it turned out to be impossible to recover, with which she also snatched the overall victory.
Digert and van der Duyn finished second and third in the race. Dygert also finished second overall, while Liz Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) completed the podium in third place.
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