Vollering takes Tour de France Femmes lead

Defending champion Demi Vollering took nan Tour de France Femmes lead pinch triumph successful nan shape 3 clip trial, aft Charlotte Kool won her 2nd consecutive shape earlier successful nan day.

Dutch rider Vollering completed nan 6.3km people successful Rotterdam successful 7 minutes 25 seconds and now leads nan wide classification by 3 seconds complete SD Worx team-mate and compatriot Lorena Wiebes.

At nan extremity of a 67km level tally from Dordrecht to Rotterdam successful nan morning, Kool kicked past Wiebes precocious connected to declare her 2nd bunch sprint triumph aft winning Monday's opening stage.

Kool vanished 33rd successful nan individual clip trial, 25 seconds down connected Vollering, and is now 5th wide astatine 5 seconds back.

The race, now successful its 3rd edition, moves from nan Netherlands into Belgium connected Wednesday, earlier entering France connected Thursday.

Vollering's triumph successful past year's Tour de France Femmes came aft a sensational solo triumph connected nan penultimate upland stage.

In Rotterdam, she produced a ascendant clip proceedings capacity she said she "didn't spot coming", which gives her nan leader's yellowish jersey pinch her favoured terrain successful nan mountains still to travel astatine nan weekend.

Given really short nan people was, her separator of triumph by 5 seconds complete American 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Chloe Dygert was decisive.

Britain's Anna Henderson, who won clip proceedings metallic successful Paris, vanished 11 seconds down connected Vollering successful 10th and is now 11th overall.

Olympic clip proceedings champion Grace Brown could not contend for nan shape triumph aft nan Australian required a motorcycle change.

"I had nary thought I could do this," said Vollering. "I really wasn’t moreover reasoning of nan podium.

"It’s bully that I person nan yellowish jersey. It’s up to nan different teams to return it."

DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider Kool earlier timed her footwear perfectly erstwhile again to surge astir Wiebes and triumph shape two.

Belgian rider Audrey de Keersmaeker launched a solo breakaway early connected successful nan shape and stayed clear for 30km.

She was caught pinch conscionable nether 10km to spell and nan sprinters' teams took control, pinch Wiebes looking good placed to dress up for a dropped concatenation costing her connected shape one.

But Kool manoeuvred herself onto Wiebes' instrumentality and came information successful nan last 100m to separator her rival connected nan line, pinch different Dutchwoman, Marianne Vos, successful third.

Despite failing to support clasp of nan leader's yellowish jersey successful nan clip trial, Kool said she had "no regrets".

"It was really typical to deterioration yellowish successful beforehand of nan location fans here," she added. "It’s a time I will retrieve forever."

Wednesday's 4th shape is simply a 122.7km hilly people from Valkenburg to Liege.

Selected others:

11. Anna Henderson (GB/Team Visma) +11secs

18. Pfeiffer Georgi (GB/DSM-Firmenich PostNL) +16secs

29. Lizzie Holden (GB/UAE Team ADQ) +23secs

99. Lizzie Deignan (GB/Lidl-Trek) +49secs

127. Alice Towers (GB/Canyon–SRAM) +1min 12secs

146. Becky Storrie (GB/DSM-Firmenich PostNL) +5mins 39secs