Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Giorgia Bronzini proved once again that there is more to her game than one of the fastest sprints in the women’s peloton, as she managed to stay with a select front group of seven to take the third stage of the Tour de l’Ardèche, between Vals les Bains and Le Tiel. The former two-time World champion was by far the fastest of the leading riders at the finish, beating Italian compatriots Rossella Ratto (Servetto-Footon Mixed) and Elena Cecchini (Faren-Kuota) into second and third.
The short, hilly 77.4km stage came in the afternoon, and followed a similarly hilly 3.5km morning stage two time trial in Vals les Bains. Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Linda Villumsen completed the course in five minutes and 24 seconds, just nine seconds slower than stage winner Alena Amialiusik (Be Pink), and just one tenth of a second behind Amialiusik’s teammate Noemi Cantele.
Unfortunately, this meant that Villumsen lost the race leader’s pink jersey to Amialiusik, although both riders are on the same overall time. Having lost the jersey, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling went on the attack in the afternoon, to try to take it back from the Belarusian champion.
“We were just seven riders in front after the last climb,” explained Bronzini. “Linda and me were in the top five at the top, and the bunch was really, really small, about 15 riders. We knew that the downhill was really, really dangerous and technical, so we stayed in the first positions.
“After me there was a gap, because the other girls took a break in the downhill; we did a really crazy downhill,” she smiled. “In one corner the leader, Amialiusik took a wrong corner so she had to follow us for some kilometres. Me and the others tried to work for a gap, but she was so strong that she came back, and then we were only seven.”
“I stopped working with about five-k to go, and Linda tried to follow the attack. In the final Linda pulled me in the sprint. It was a technical final, and I was in the wheel until 200 metres to go, when I made my sprint.
“I felt so good today because the climb was not so steep,” Bronzini added. “It was quite long, but Be Pink controlled the race and there weren’t so many attacks, which was better for me.”
Villumsen and Amialiusik finished fourth and fifth respectively on the stage, and were given the same time, which means that the Belarusian still holds the pink jersey, but Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling will work hard to take it back again in the stages to come.
“I think that tomorrow – the others have seen me so good in the climbs – they will try to do something to lose me, but I will try to stay in the wheel and work for Linda,” Bronzini said. “She deserves it and we would like to have the jersey back.”
