Le Court takes Tour green jersey with Great Orme stage win

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Le Court takes Tour green jersey with Great Orme stage win

ByMatt Warwick

BBC Sport Senior Journalist
  • Published

Kim Le Court of Mauritius won stage three of the Lloyd’s Tour of Britain Women to the Great Orme to move into the overall leader’s green jersey.

The AG Insurance-Soudal rider powered away from rivals with three kilometres to go on the winding final climb in Llandudno, north Wales after a 104.7km race from Mold.

Le Court, 30, finished 13 seconds ahead of Germany’s Liane Lippert of Movistar with Sweden’s Caroline Andersson of Liv Alula Jayco a further seven seconds down in third.

Le Court now leads the overall general classification by 26 seconds over Lippert with the Netherlands’ Lorena Wiebes in third, 35 seconds behind.

Le Court led the race last year until crashing heavily in the rain on the second stage from Hartlepool, but this year showed prowess in pulling away strongly from the rest of the field in dry conditions.

“You can never be too confident,” said Le Court. “Last year I took the green jersey on day one then on day two I crashed out, so we’ll keep our head on our shoulders and keep fighting until the end.”

The first two stages of the race were won by the world’s best sprinter Wiebes, who dominated both fast finishes.

The SD Worx-Protime rider, however, lost the overall lead once the race finished on the Great Orme – a iconic part of Tour of Britain history.

Wiebes, 27, also lost the red points jersey to Le Court but held on well to finish just 42 seconds down to Le Court on the day.

The blue queen of the mountains jersey was claimed by Britain’s Lauren Dickson of FDJ United-Suez, who now leads the competition by 12 points.

Belgium’s Fleur Moors of Lidl-Trek remains in the white young rider’s jersey.

The race made it to Wales on high emotion and under great scrutiny over safety following the death of Fin Tarling a week ago during the Volta a Portugal.

Welshman Tarling, 19, was hit by a van which had strayed onto the course.

His older brother Josh will take part in the three-week Vuelta a Espana Grand Tour for Netcompany Ineos which begins on Saturday.

On the first stage, O’Shea Red Chilli rider Maeve Plouffe posted on social media that “there were cars from the general public coming at me from all directions, including one that nearly hit me on a roundabout”.

But the Australian also praised the overall organisation of the the race.

Saturday’s penultimate stage four is a hilly 138.3km race to Hay on Wye on the Welsh-English border, which sees a fast finish if the sprinters can make it over the climbs first.

Image gallerySkip image gallery

Slide 1 of 4, Britain’s Imogen Wolffs dog, A dog belonging to Britain’s Imogen Wolff sits in wait for the Visma-Lease a Bike rider to arrive on the Great Orme

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