Ruth Winder moves into race lead with sprint victory on stage three of the Women's Tour Down Under 2020

Ruth Winder wins stage three of the Women's Tour Down Under 2020 (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 18 January 2020

Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) won the sprint finish on stage three to move into the leader's jersey at the 2020 Women's Tour Down Under.

The American national road race champion saw off Liane Lippert (Sunweb) and Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-SVB) to cross the line first, picking up time bonuses and moving into the race lead, displacing Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) who finished tenth on the stage.

Lippert moves into second on GC, seven seconds down, while Spratt sits in third on the same deficit.

Speaking after the stage, Winder said: "My teammate Tayler Wiles, she was just leading me out perfectly. I was talking to her the whole time, we’ve been teammates for years and she’s helped me with so many wins, so every time I do I feel so grateful for her in the last 500 metres.

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"The whole team the entire race was really active at the front covering things, making sure I was really safe until the circuits, which were pretty hard with Mitchelton-SCOTT destroying it on the times pretty much."

Tomorrow's final stage four will see a flat Adeliade circuit decide the overall victor, with bonus seconds available at intermediate sprints that could help decide the general classification.

Results

Women's Tour Down Under 2020: Stage three, Nairne to Stirling (109.1km)

1. Ruth Winder (USA) Trek-Segafredo, in 2-51-16

2. Liane Lippert (Ger) Sunweb

3. Lauren Stephens (USA) TIBCO-SVB

4. Peta Mullens (Aus) Roxsolt Attaquer

5. Chloe Hosking (Aus) Rally Cycling Women

6. Anastasiia Chursina (Rus) Alé BTC Ljubljana

7. Ella Harris (Aus) Canyon SRAM Racing

8. Shara Gillow (Aus) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope

9. Rachel Neylan (Aus) UniSA-Australia

10. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, all at same time

General classification after stage three

1. Ruth Winder (USA) Trek-Segafredo, in 9-12-26

2. Liane Lippert (Ger) Sunweb, at seven seconds

3. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at same time

4. Chloe Hosking (Aus) Rally Cycling Women, at 30s

5. Leah Kirchmann (Can) Sunweb, at 33s

6. Peta Mullens (Aus) Roxsolt Attaquer, at 34s

7. Lauren Stephens (USA) TIBCO-SVB, at same time

8. Juliette Labous (Fra) Sunweb, at 36s

9. Shara Gillow (Aus) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, at 37s

10. Ella Harris (Nzl) Canyon SRAM Racing, at same time

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Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.

Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).

I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.