Emakumeen Bira 2012 Stage 3

Linda Villumsen, who now rides for
GreenEDGE

GreenEDGE's Danish-born New Zealander Linda Villumsen proved she still has the strengths that drove her to numerous National and European time trial titles with a storming 18'21" lap around the 13.4km time trial parcours today, taking the two stiff climbs in her stride for first place with a time 3" faster than five-time time trial champion of Germany and current World time trial champ Judith Arndt.

Emma Pooley (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) retains her lead in the General Classification, but with her advantage reduced to one second by Judith Arndt (GreenEDGE) who is now in second place. Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabobank) edges Trixi Worrack (Specialized-Lululemon) off the top spot in the Points competition and now leads with 39 to Worrack's 35. Sarah-Lena Hoffman (Germany) is best Young Rider; Mountains and Sprints points were not on offer in the time trial and so both classifications remain unchanged.

Sunday is the Queen Stage and riders face 116km from Urduña to Iurreta including three categorised climbs: two Cat 2s and a Cat 3: a state of affairs that would seem to be very much to Pooley's liking because if she repeat her Stage 2 tactic of driving the peloton at a pace too high for her rivals to have the strength required to challenge her supreme skills on the mountains, the stage is all hers.


Top ten
  1.  Linda Villumsen Orica GreenEDGE 18'21"
  2.  Judith Arndt Orica GreenEDGE +3"
  3.  Ellen Van Dijk Specialized-Lululemon +6"
  4.  Emma Pooley AA Drink-Leontien.nl +10"
  5.  Emma Johansson Hitec Products-Mistral Home ST
  6.  Annemiek Van Vleuten Rabobank +18"
  7.  Shelley Olds AA Drink-Leontien.nl +21"
  8.  Ina Yoko Teutenberg Specialized-Lululemon +28"
  9.  Elizabeth Armitstead AA Drink-Leontien.nl +36"
  10.  Silvia Valsecchi Be Pink +41"
(Full results)