Lizzie Armitstead (GBR) made it three in a row today winning the fifth stage of Tour De l’Ardéche.
“On paper it did not look as hard as yesterday stage,” said Egon van Kessel, Sports Director. “Today, though we had a lot of wind, the main part of the course was ridden between houses. It was only on the last part of the stage that the wind played a factor that we could take advantage of to set a high pace and thin out the peloton. During the race Sharon Laws (GBR) again tried twice to drop leader Vickie Whitelaw (AUS) on the climbs but she came both times back in the descents. At the end 45 riders came together so it ended in a bunch sprint. And Lizzie made it a hat trick by winning the fifth stage, really good work. We are still second in the GC, four seconds back. We have one more chance in tomorrow’s final stage and we will do our best to take advantage of that.”
“Again today it was a really strong team performance. We did some attacks during the race to bring Sharon in the best position but we were not able to drop Whitelaw,” said Lizzie Armitstead, following today’s stage. “In the final we tried again to get Sharon in the best position and to bring her in the right break away but we couldn’t make a gap so I made the sprint with quite a big bunch. I just gave it full gas and was able to pass the line first. This is a new thing to win three times in a row.”