On Edge Hill, the two leaders dropped back into the chase group. At the 117km, the leading group was: Ludwig (Cervélo), Elvin (Orica), Ritter (Drops), Jasinska (Cylance), Gillow (FDJ) gaining nearly 2 mins over the peloton.
With 20km to go, the leading group were holding steady with a 65 second lead over the peloton which is slowly lost over a straight section as the peloton were able to claw back 25 seconds. As the gap reduced to just 11 seconds, at the 141km mark there was another crash involving Boels-Dolmans, Marianne Vos (WM3) and Danni King (Wiggle High5) – who quickly got back on their bikes again.
With 5km to go, the leaders were caught by the peloton who powered on to a climatic finish. The frantic bunch sprint for the line was won by Chloe Hosking of Alé Cipollini.
The top ten riders from Stage 3 are:
1 HOSKING Chloe ALE
2 BARNES Alice DRP
3 VAN DIJK Ellen SUN
4 BRONZINI Giorgia WHT
5 MAJERUS Christine DLT
6 BARNES Hannah LPR
7 ARCHIBALD Katie WNT
8 PENTON Sara TVW
9 MOBERG Emilie HPU
10 JACKSON Alison BPK
Here are the jerseys at the end of Stage three…
Niewiadoma will head into Stage Four still wearing the green OVO Energy jersey.
Niewiadoma also retains the points jersey which will be worn by teammate Marianne Vos.
Cordon-Ragot holds onto the black Skoda UK QoM jersey
Alice Barnes takes the Adnams Best British Rider jersey for the second time this tour
Jolien D’Ho0re takes the sprint jersey going into stage four tomorrow.
Catch up with the Stage One report here
Catch up with the Stage Two report here