Vos Wins Stage 5 and Takes Overall Win in Friends Life Women's Tour

News & Results

05/11/2014| 0 comments
by Mark Watson
Marianne Vos wins final stage of 2014 Friends Life Women's Tour and takes overall race victory Roadcycling.com

Vos Wins Stage 5 and Takes Overall Win in Friends Life Women's Tour

Marianne Vos solidified her overall victory in the inaugural Friends Life Women's Tour by taking her third consecutive stage victory in the race - this time in Bury St Edmunds, Great Britain, outsprinting Giorgia Bronzini and Amy Pieters on Angel Hill.

The time bonus for the stage winner led to Vos finishing thirty seconds clear of previous stage winners Emma Johansson and Rossella Ratto in second and third place, respectively, with the latter also claiming the Matrix Fitness Best Young Rider jersey for the highest placed Under-23 rider.

Italian duo Bronzini and Susanna Zorzi, who claimed the week's overall combativity award, were fourth and fifth overall, with Pieters just edging Lucy Garner and Hannah Barnes in sixth, seventh and eighth places.

Garner also took the Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Best British Rider jersey, taking over the jersey on Sunday morning in Harwich after Team Boels Dolmans' English National Champion Elizabeth "Lizzie" Armitstead withdrew due to illness and then defending it from Barnes in the final sprint, despite clipping the barriers in the final corner.

For the second day running Lotto-Belisol Ladies' Emma Pooley was in the thick of the action, winning the Combativity Award for animating today's stage by continuously attacking on the 108.3 kilometer route through Tendring and Suffolk.

Loes Gunnewijk, Lauren Hall and Lisa Brennauer joined Pooley, but with no Team Rabo-Liv rider in the font group they were brought back, setting up the final sprint finish of the week into Bury St Edmunds' Angel Hill, where anxious crowds awaited.

For the third day running it was Vos who delivered a perfect and powerful sprint, beating a fast Bronzini, with Pieters and Barnes following close behind.

Vos' consistent run of top three finishes and bonus points saw her claim the YodelDirect Points jersey, while Sharon Laws and Jolanda Neff's week-long battle for the Strava Queen of the Mountains jersey ended in favor of the British rider, three points ahead of her Swiss counterpart.

Optum - Kelly Benefit Strategies claimed the overall team classification, with American rider Hall their highest finisher in ninth overall.

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