A well-timed sprint by Marianne Vos was not enough to overcome her winning compatriot and rival Lorena Wiebes (SD Works) in a long breakaway to the finish, and she finished second on stage 3 of the Tour de France Femme in Montignac-Lascaux She finished second in the Tour de France Femme in Montignac-Lascaux.

The leader of Jumbo Visma, who won two stages in 2022 and wore the yellow jersey for five days, has yet to win a stage in this year's competition, which began Sunday in Clermont-Ferrand, finishing in fourth place.

"It wasn't easy today, so I was happy to at least be in contention for the win and happy with my work," Vos said. 'The girls did a great job all day and took care of Blake. And of course, we want to give it our all."

"Lorena was the fastest today. At least it's something we can try and be happy with."

The 147.2-km race from Collonges-la-Rouge to Montignac-Lascaux on stage 3 was nearly won by Julie Van de Velde (Phoenix-Alpecin) in a solo breakaway.

"At first it was unorganized. Julie van de Velde had some good moments and was really strong. After the chase in the peloton, we gained some time back, but she had a really gutsy run at the end," Vos said. [In the last three or four kilometers, it looked like it was over, but the speed picked up and some of the train tried to pull ahead, but dsm did a great job.

"We were all in the mix, safe and trying to stay in front.

Vos lost two riders when Eva Van Akt crashed in Mauriac on stage 2. Jumbo-Visma confirmed that Van Ackt suffered a bruised lung, concussion, and abrasions and returned to the Netherlands on Tuesday to recover.

And Colin Labecki fell on the road to Montignac-Lascaux, and although he completed the stage, he appeared to have pain in his knee.

Vos said he was able to take the lead out of Anna Henderson and enter the final corner through the peloton and into the sprint for the third stage.

"I soon realized that Weaves was passing me with more speed, though. But I soon realized that Weaves had more speed. All I could do was keep pedaling to the finish line," Vos said.

"On the one hand, I can look back on a good result today. It's not easy to win a stage at the Tour. It remains the biggest cycling event of the season. Now it is important to recover well from another tough stage. Then we will be able to keep fighting for the win."