Fullering wins time trial, takes yellow

Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 3 of the Women's Tour de France with Zwift. She was unbeatable in the 6.3-kilometre time trial in Rotterdam with a time of 7:25 minutes. World champion in the discipline Chloe Dygert (Canyon//SRAM Racing) came in second in the battle against the clock, five seconds behind. Loes Adegeest (FDJ – Suez) was third. The previous overall leader, Charlotte Cole (dsm-unternehmenich PostNL), finished 25 seconds behind Vollering and ended up in 33rd place.

With her stage win, Demi Vollering also took the overall lead. Here she is three seconds ahead of her teammate Lorena Wibbs. Third place here is Chloe Dygert (Canyon//SRAM Racing) with a six-second lead.

This is how the third stage of the Tour de France went with Zwift 2024

Dutchwoman Loes Adegeest (FDJ-Suez) set a new best time of 7:30, which was destined to last for a long time and was subsequently beaten by only a handful of riders. Adegeest averaged over 50 km/h on the 6.3 km Rotterdam street circuit.

The only person who was likely to beat her was the Olympic champion in the discipline, Grace Brown (FDJ – Suez). But Brown had a defect and had to change bikes and ended up 19 seconds behind her teammate.

Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) then set a new provisional best of 4:33 minutes after 3.9 kilometres, one second faster than Adegeest. However, van Dijk lost a few seconds over the remaining 2.4 kilometres and was one second behind Adegeest at the finish.

Something similar happened to Kirsten Faulkner (EF Oatley-Cannondale), who set a new provisional best time – one second ahead of Van Dijk. She also lost time before the finish and was also one second behind Adegeest at the finish.

World time trial champion Chloe Dygert drives strong race

The next best provisional time was set by world time trial champion Chloe Dygert (Canyon//SRAM Racing) with a time of 4:32. She saved a slim 0.17 second lead to the finish and thus knocked Loes Adegeest, who had been leading until then, off the hot seat.

Neither Juliette Labus (dsm-unternehmenich PostNL) with 7:40 minutes nor Riejanne Markus (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) with 7:37 minutes could come close to this time.

Then came Demi Fullering (SD Worx-Protime). She was on the same time as Dygert at the time and managed to “make up” after another five seconds. She got out of the saddle in the last 100m, sprinted until she was completely exhausted and recorded a new best time of 7:25. But would that also be enough to take the overall lead?

Lorena Whipps narrowly missed yellow.

Vollering's teammate Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) had six seconds to go in the individual time trial, and overall leader Charlotte Kool (dsm-unternehmenich PostNL) had 20 seconds. While Wiebes was driving like a starter and was just nine seconds behind the finish, Kool was already 16 seconds behind in the split time and dropped to fifth overall.

Loes Adegeest wasn't the only one to surprise, finishing a solid third. Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team) also had a very strong race. The winner of the junior classification at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2023 came in fourth on the stage.

Stage winner Demi Vollering in an interview

“I didn’t expect to win here today. I had no idea I would be able to do it today. I’m really surprised. I also didn’t train for the individual time trial here. I wanted to survive the first few days here and I also wanted to enjoy these first days. This morning I had tomorrow’s stage on my mind all the time, which I really like. I love Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and I was thinking about it all the time today in the road race as well. After the road race and before the time trial I slept twice. I had two power naps and I was very relaxed. I still can’t believe I won. The original plan was to get the yellow jersey later in the week, but now we want to defend it until the end,” said Vollering after her final victory.

Women's Tour de France Stage 3 Results with Zwift 2024

Daily arrangement
1. Demi Wohlring (SD Worx-Protime)
2. Chloe Dygert (Canyon Racing//SRAM) +0:05
3. Los Adiges (FDJ – Suez) + 0:05

yellow jersey | Overall Rating
1. Demi Wohlring (SD Worx-Protime)
2. Lorena Whipps (SD Worx-Protime) + 0:03
3. Chloe Dygert (Canyon Racing//SRAM) +0:06

white jersey | Young Talent Ranking
1. Anina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility)
2. Bock Peters (Phoenix-Dessonink) + 0:01
3. Sherine van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) + 0:05

Green Jersey | Scoring
1. Charlotte Cole (dsm-unternehmenich PostNL) 100 points
2. Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Rent a Bike) 61 points
3. Lorena Whipps (SD Worx-Protime) 39 points

Polka dot shirt | Mountain classification
1. Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Cotxa – Fundación Euskadi) 2 points
2. Ruby Roseman Gannon (Lev Ala Jaeco) 1 point

Photos: Asso/Thomas Maheu, Aso/Charlie Lopez