It was a tough day for overnight race leader Kristen Faulkner on stage 3 of the Tour of Britain Women as the EF Education-Oatly leader faded out of overall contention after suffering crashes and mechanicals during the stage around the Scottish Borders.
The 143km stage was the hardest of the whole race with five categorised climbs and teams wanted to take advantage early on. FDJ-Suez pushed on over the first climb of the day up to Scott’s View and continued over the top. As the pace ramped up, Faulkner had her first issue of the day; a mechanical leading to a long chase back.
Then, with 56km left, Faulkner crashed alongside 15 others as the leading group came round a left hand bend, but managed to chase back with help from team-mates Nina Berton and Sara Roy. She crashed again with 33km to go and this time, wouldn’t return. The Olympic champion would eventually ship more than three minutes and saw her lead change hands to Movistar’s Cat Ferguson.
It was a battling performance from Faulkner, but the stars were out of alignment for the American in Kelso.
“She's a fighter, so she never gave up,” EF Education-Oatly Sports Director Daniel Foder told Cycling Weekly after the stage.
“She had her teammates around her. I mean, when you have that leader jersey, you cannot give up. You have to keep fighting, and that's the mentality for her and for the team as well.
The first mechanical was maybe in the worst possible moment, because that was a hectic and fast part of the race. But we managed to get back, and everything was actually okay, I think. But then one crash, we had to spend a lot of energy getting back from that one, and then the second one was one crash too many,” Foder concluded.
An unwritten but universally-known rule in cycling is that you don’t accelerate when the race leader is chasing back on after a crash or mechanical. However, after Faulkner’s first spill, it appeared that FDJ-Suez, working for New Zealander Ally Wollaston, lifted the pace.
Coming up in short order was an intermediate sprint as the race passed through the start-finish line in Kelso, which may give enough of an excuse for the French team who continued the pace-making through the line. Foder was pragmatic about the move afterwards.
“I understand because they have a sprint coming up for bonus seconds, and we know that they need to take it. If they continue, I mean, OK, they can do what they want. Personally, I would do different, I think. But it's a race. We cannot complain. We evaluate on how we can do our stuff, and then we have a new day again tomorrow.”
The final stage of the race is a dash around the streets of Glasgow. EF Education-Oatly now need to dust themselves down and set new goals for their last day in Britain.
“For sure I think Breakaway will be really difficult because of the bonus seconds, of course.
On paper, it's going to be a sprint, but we will talk and then see if we can come up with something.”
“The race is not over yet and I think for us at this moment, I think it's about recovery from today and then hopefully we're able to bounce back.”
