Tour de France Femmes: stage three time-trial after Charlotte Kool doubles up – live | Tour de France Femmes

Brown finishes just 19 seconds off the leader, Adegeest, in a time of 7min49secs. Remarkable really. She surely would be our new leader if not for that puncture. I estimate it cost her around 30 seconds in time.

Disaster for the Australian! Brown puts her hand up signalling to her FDJ–Suez team that she needs to change her bike. She’s off the golden bike, and after a brief stoppage, she sets off again on the new bike. That is a costly incident though, although completely not her fault of course!

Lizzie Deignan, 2015 world road race champion, finished with a time of 7min 54secs, 24 seconds off the pace of our leader Adegeest. I enjoyed this piece we did before the Olympics on the British rider.

We should mention that the road surface is quite bumpy in Rotterdam, particularly as there are so many tram lines to go over.

Here comes Grace Brown, the Olympic time trial champion. She was playing her chances down in pre-stage interviews, suggesting that this course was almost too short for her (favouring some of the most powerful sprinters) but she is certainly one of the favourites here and will definitely be going for a stage win here.

Australia’s Neve Bradbury, of Canyon–SRAM, has given an interesting interview after posting her own time of 8min 16secs. She said that she wasn’t riding on “pure vibes”, alluding to the fact that most riders aren’t measuring their power, basically just going full throttle because it is such a short course.

Bradbury also mentioned that there was gravel on one of the corners, so maybe something to watch out for in the remaining riders. So far, thankfully, there have been no crashes in this third stage.

Given the 6.3km distance, we’re obviously not going to see massive gaps in the GC standings. Most will try and tuck in, not empty the legs and stay in contention.

The average speed of the riders round this course is a touch over 50km/hr, which is approximately the speed of a tiger sprinting at full pelt. Not sure which of those is more relatable. But all you need to know is: the riders and the tigers can shift it.

Loes Adegeest, of FDJ–Suez, is our new leader, bringing the time to beat to 7min30secs.

Elena Pirrone, the 21-year-old Roland rider, has posted the fastest time so far: 7min 44secs.

There are lots of candidates for the stage win. Here are the 11 national time trial champions participating this afternoon in Rotterdam.

Riejanne Markus (Netherlands)
Kimberley Le Court (Mauritius)
Katrine Aalerud (Norway)
Anniina Ahtosalo (Finland)
Grace Brown (Australia)
Christine Majerus (Luxembourg)
Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France)
Emma Norsgaard (Denmark)
Margarita Misyurina (Uzbekistan)
Antri Christoforou (Cyprus)
Anna Henderson (Great Britain)

Here are my three picks for stage three. It won’t shock you that I have picked the top three from the Olympic podium, although in a slightly different order.

Chloe Dygert: won an Olympic gold medal on the track. She crashed on the Olympic time trial and still came away with a bronze medal. Dygert is probably the favourite here.

Grace Brown: the Olympic time trial champion is sporting a gold helmet and a gold bike here. “It’s not that technical, most of the corners are pretty wide”, says the Australian. Well that put my preview in its place.

Anna Henderson: last year in the World Championships in Glasgow, British rider Henderson just missed out on a podium finish in the time trial but won silver in the time trial at the Olympics, although medal was probably helped by Dygert’s crash.

Coles-Lyster (Roland), our first rider, has finished with a time of 8min3secs. I’m not sure that is a particularly strong time. We can expect the leaders to get towards the seven-minute mark.

As I mentioned before, this will be a huge test for the riders’ legs, despite both stage two and three being relatively short. But there are also three very technical sections to this time trial: the 180 degree about turn around a roundabout and attacking the two bridges, Erasmusbrug and Willemsbrug, which both require sharp turns as you enter and exit.

Maggie Coles-Lyster, of DNA Pro Cycling, is the first rider off the ramp!

Sorry to say that unlike Roseman-Gannon and Pate, Dilyxine Miermont has been forced to quit this year’s race, following a crash of her own earlier today on stage two.

On to stage three, then. Here are a couple of nice illustrations of what to expect. It’s a super short course at just 6.3km, so the pace is going to be intense.

There was a nasty crash during stage two in the final 3km, with Australian pair Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Amber Pate both coming off in the peloton, which meant a host of riders around them missed out on the sprint finish. Delighted to say that both Roseman-Gannon and Pate are OK and fit enough to compete in this afternoon’s time trial.

Hello everyone (again). Before we build-up to the time trial, which is due to start in the next few minutes, let’s recap what went on with stage two earlier today, with Charlotte Kool going back-to-back with stage victories.

Right, that’s all done for stage two. Congratulations to Charlotte Kool, who has won both stages thus far. Surely she couldn’t make it a hat-trick in this afternoon’s time trial stage three?

I’ll be back here around 2pm BST, 3pm local time for the time trial. Do join me for more live updates. Until then!

Attention turns now to stage three, which comes later today at around 2.10pm BST. It’s a time trial around Rotterdam, just 6.3km long, so not too far off a flat out sprint. It is mainly along the main boulevards in the city, with two technical sections across two bridges, Erasmusbrug and Willemsbrug. We are expecting each rider to take between seven and eight minutes to complete it.

Will be really interesting to see how the riders recover from this morning’s stage two, and prepare for stage three. I wonder if the time trial might favour some of the track cyclists we saw at the Olympics, as they are used to racing more than once in a day. Watch out for Lily Williams, who won gold in the team pursuit for the USA in Paris. Could we also see Christian Faulkner make an impression on stage three after her Olympic road race triumph?

Our leader in yellow, Charlotte Kool, is just warming down after stage two. Presumably she is going to go and lie down first.

Here are highlights of the final kilometre. That kick from Kool at the very end was special.

Kool leads the way in yellow, having won both stages so far. Demi Vollering is 20 seconds off the pace, in 24th place.

1. Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL)
2. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)
3. Marianne Vos (Visma|Lease a Bike)
4. Lotta Henttala (EF-Oatly-Cannondale)
5. Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek)

Overall favourite Demi Vollering, SD Worx–Protime teammate of Wiebes, also speaks:

It was really stressful, really fast. It’s sad that we didn’t win, it would have been nice if Lorena [Wiebes] won today, maybe she went a bit early. I think [finishing second] has made her even more motivated for the time trial.

Kool’s English dsm–firmenich PostNL teammate, Pfeiffer Georgi, also spoke to the cameras:

I think we all had confidence [in Kool]. She’s just so fast. We knew it was going to be crazy. It was even more technical than yesterday, with all the road furniture. We didn’t want to be in front, we wanted to come from behind with speed.

Kool speaks to the cameras after her stage two win:

We were a bit far, but I tried to stay calm. I launched my sprint, and it was enough. We were in control the whole day. It was a hectic course, but I like it. Dreams come true quite fast these days. First yesterday [in the yellow jersey], now today. I guess I’m stronger than ever, I didn’t expect this

Kool certainly looked like she had more in the legs there. Wiebes was at the Olympics, while Kool has chosen to focus on the TdF, and I wonder if that has played a part here. Wiebes’s preparations – travel, nutrition, training, her mental prep – have not been ideal going into this. The same could be said for Vos.

Woooooooooow. I’m watching a replay of that sprint finish back, and Kool timed that to absolute perfection. Wiebes got a great lead out from her SD Worx–Protime teammates, but Kool had a huge burst of acceleration with around 100 metres to go, and the momentum saw her pass her compatriot with just a few metres to go.

Vos is among the riders at the front, but Charlotte Kool, in yellow, comes from nowhere (two or three riders back) and pips Wiebes to the line, adding to her stage one victory! Wow!

We’re into the sprint finish! Charlotte Kool and Lorena Wiebes are there, with Vos also there!

Australia’s Amber Pate goes down near the front and a large section of the peloton is forced to stop on such a narrow bridge. Disaster! Ruby Roseman-Gannon also involved. Only a portion of riders of the front escaped that!

A huge right turn, as riders decelerate from 62km/hr to cross a bridge. We are into the Rotterdam city centre now. Stage favourites Charlotte Kool and Lorena Wiebes are well placed, just 3km to go.

Obviously. It was a good effort, but ultimately De Keersmaeker wasn’t able to hold off the peloton.

I really can’t express enough how flat this stage is, hardly surprising in the Netherlands. Marianne Vos is on home turf, the Dutch superstar is well positioned about 10 riders back from the front. She slightly misjudged yesterday’s finish into the Hague. “Fifth is not really satisfying but it’s a bunch sprint so anything can happen,” said Vos, before agreeing that positioning was the problem. “I was a bit too far back in the final kilometre, so I couldn’t sprint for the win. I still did everything I could, but Kool turned out to be the fastest today.”

The riders are currently zooming along at around 45km/hr. Just six kilometres to go.

The peloton eats up the road and swallows De Keersmaeker. Just under 10km to go!

It’s a huge peloton of 147 riders, but there is a fair amount of road furniture – roundabouts, narrow funnels of road, bridges as the cyclists make their way into Rotterdam. That means that the peloton does elongate somewhat, which could play a big part in the bunch finish.

Speaking of the peloton, they are closing on our stage two leader, Audrey De Keersmaeker, whose lead is now down to 15 seconds with just under 12m left.

Today, Nikola Noskova (Cofidis Women Team), Yanina Kuskova (Tashkent City Women Professional Cycling Team) and Mieke Docx (Lotto Dstny Ladies) have been involved in a crash, while Dilyxine Miermont (St Michel – Mavic – Auber93 WE) and Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) also had a collision, although the latter pair made it back into the peloton.

There have been more crashes today after the drama of yesterday. A crash in the neutral zone on stage one led to the British rider Natalie Grinczer falling and then abandoning. The Tashkent City Women’s team had a torrid first day and lost four of their seven riders.

Here is the stage one report from Monday.

There are some big names missing here: Lotte Kopecky, who raced in the final day of competition on Sunday in the Olympic velodrome and was second overall to her SD Worx Protime teammate Demi Vollering in last year’s Tour de France Femmes, was one of those who prioritised the Olympics. Elisa Longo Borghini, winner of the women’s Giro d’Italia, has also pulled out because of the painful aftermath of a recent crash while out training.

Vollering remains the overall favourite again this year.

It’s a wild two parter today at the Tour de France Femmes: first up is the stage two run from Dordrecht to Rotterdam, a 69.7km race along the flat, with a sprint finish. There is around 18km left of that, so we’ll dive straight into that now.

Audrey De Keersmaeker is out in front on her own, and has around a 28 second lead on the rest of the peloton. Not sure she is going to hold onto that, but she will surely get the combative rider of the day award.

The stage-three time trial will also take place later: a 6.3km ride around Rotterdam. But we’ll come to that later.