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Valkenburg, The Netherlands - 7 September, 2015 - Lisa Brennauer has claimed her third tour of the year, after winning the Boels Rental Ladies Tour yesterday. Brennauer finished third on the final stage from Bunde to Valkenburg, to keep the leaders jersey. Thalita de Jong (Rabo-Liv) won the stage, with Elisa Longo-Borghini (Wiggle Honda) second.
Televised live the final stage lived up to its reputation of being the toughest stage of the tour. With 16 riders within 1 minute of the General Classification it was set to be an exciting race and it didn't disappoint. The 117.5 kilometre stage, with 5 ascents of the famous Cauberg climb was raced aggressively. A large break with Alena Amialiusik representing Velocio-SRAM was allowed over two minutes advantage in the first half of the race. The group was brought back around 30 kilometres to go which then set off a flurry of attacks. Longo-Borghini, Claudia Lichtenberg (Liv-Plantur), Jessie Daams (Lotto-Soudal) and Roxanne Knetemann (Rabo-Liv) were amongst the active riders. The late breaks were slowly controlled and brought back by Brennauer's team mates Trixi Worrack and Alena Amialiusik who worked tirelessly. In the end the lead group went to the line together, with a late attack from de Jong in the last 100 metres that proved successful to win the stage.
Brennauer said, "My team mates were incredible. It was a really good situation earlier in the stage with Alena being in the large break and she was the best ranked rider. After this came back there were a lot of attacks and I can imagine that the race was exciting to watch. Everyone of the team worked so hard and in the end it was Alena and Trixi who gave it all to keep me with the climbers. It was an awesome effort by the whole team and a strong performance to win this tour! Thanks also to our staff who made us fly through the week and all of the support of our sponsors."
Team mate Tayler Wiles continues to hold onto the pink leaders jersey in Tour Feminin De l'Ardeche. Finishing safely in the bunch on yesterday's stage, Wiles still holds a 27 second advantage over Lauren Stephens (Team Tibco-SVB) with just one stage remaining.
The Velocio-SRAM team will now prepare for it's final race of the season, the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond where it's aiming to win the gold medal for the fourth year in a row.
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