Tour de Yorkshire 2019 result: Marianne Vos wins women’s race as Ineos’s Chris Lawless is pipped on line
The Dutch great had too much strength and nous for her rivals in fierce Scarborough weather
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Your support makes all the difference.The Tour de Yorkshire did its best to entice the world’s greatest cyclists to this 2019 edition, and it paid off with the sight of Dutch great Marianne Vos overcoming some forthright Yorkshire weather and the rest of an elite field to win the women’s race on Scarborough seafront.
This beautiful part of Yorkshire coastline has become a little like this race’s very own Champs-Elysees: it is the regular host of a stage finish and continues to write its own pieces of history. Two years ago tidal shifts forced the finish to be moved back up the road and resulted in a nasty crash in the men’s race, but there was no such problems here, despite having to move the finish once again due to the tide.
For the riders the weather was the greatest challenge – first rain, then hail, then a brutal crosswind which split the pack. The road race world champion Anna van der Breggen and Yorkshire’s own Lizzie Deignan both attempted attacks – the latter winning the day’s combativity prize as a result of her efforts – but it was Vos who made a move stick with the help of a handful of others.
As she approached the finish it became a game of cat and mouse with Spain’s Mavi Garcia and Italy’s Soraya Paladin; they nearly stopped in the fierce wind, then looked at each other to see who would show their hand. And in the final 200m, Vos charged clear to clinch the stage and her second race win of the year.
“When we got over the last climb Garcia was in the lead and Paladin did a really strong pace and we catched Garcia and we were three,” said Vos. “From there it was full gas to the finish.
“When we entered – I will pronounce it wrong, probably! – Scarborough, we entered a headwind which was pretty tough but we had a safe distance to the chasers. I was nervous because you don’t know what you have in the legs anymore, but to finish it off is incredible.”
Crowds packed on to the finish several deep, while all along the course they lined the roads with bunting and colour despite the conditions. “The crowds have been incredible,” said Vos, racing here for the first time. “I have no other words. Amazing. I have seen it on TV other years but it’s great to be here. Even when the weather has not been so good, they have been out cheering. Now the sun is out and they deserve it.”
In the men’s stage three that followed, Team Ineos’s Chris Lawless missed out on victory by a matter of centimetres on the line to Danish rider Alexander Kamp.
The race sparked to life in the final 50km when Team Ineos took advantage of some headwinds around Robin Hood’s Bay and injected a surge of energy. The Polish team CCC followed, including last year’s winner Greg van Avermaet, and a handful of others including Kamp’s Riwal Readynez team, as most of the peloton were left behind.
Several riders were shed from the pack up the gruelling Cote de Grosmont and a couple more ending up in a hedge – safe but scuppered – on the way to the wonderfully named Cote de Ugglebarnby. Ineos meanwhile had the advantage of strength in numbers and the sprinting prowess of Lawless among their number, and they came to the fore on the run into Scarborough.
As they turned on to the seafront a wave crashed across the road, nearly taking out the whole group, but they powered on through the wind and into the final straight. There Lawless couldn’t quite get into the right position and fell agonisingly short. Lawless did manage to claim the overall leader’s blue jersey ahead of Sunday’s final stage to Leeds, but he was devastated to have missed the stage win.
Lawless, 23, said: “We (Riwal and Ineos) took the initiative and it worked out, we were the two teams first and second. There were a couple of things I could have done differently in the sprint. I could have stayed on [Owain] Doull’s wheel a bit and used my speed. I’m just gutted.
“We knew about the wind but I though it was going to be more of a crosswind but it was maybe cross-tail. Kamp times his move perfectly, and like I say I’m just gutted.”
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