Kim Le Court of Mauritius won stage three of the Lloyd’s Tour of Britain Women to the Great Orme to move into the overall leader’s green jersey.
The AG Insurance-Soudal rider powered away from rivals with three kilometres to go on the winding final climb in Llandudno, north Wales after a 104.7km race from Mold.
Le Court, 30, finished 13 seconds ahead of Germany’s Liane Lippert of Movistar with Sweden’s Caroline Andersson of Liv Alula Jayco a further seven seconds down in third.
Le Court now leads the overall general classification by 26 seconds over Lippert with the Netherlands’ Lorena Wiebes in third, 35 seconds behind.
Le Court led the race last year until crashing heavily in the rain on the second stage from Hartlepool, but this year showed prowess in pulling away strongly from the rest of the field in dry conditions.
“You can never be too confident,” said Le Court. “Last year I took the green jersey on day one then on day two I crashed out, so we’ll keep our head on our shoulders and keep fighting until the end.”
The first two stages of the race were won by the world’s best sprinter Wiebes, who dominated both fast finishes.
The SD Worx-Protime rider, however, lost the overall lead once the race finished on the Great Orme – a iconic part of Tour of Britain history.
Wiebes, 27, also lost the red points jersey to Le Court but held on well to finish just 42 seconds down to Le Court on the day.
The blue queen of the mountains jersey was claimed by Britain’s Lauren Dickson of FDJ United-Suez, who now leads the competition by 12 points.
Belgium’s Fleur Moors of Lidl-Trek remains in the white young rider’s jersey.
