"In the final kilometre I was really well looked after," Roy said. "I wasn’t confident coming over the climbs today, I didn’t have a great day yesterday so I really tried to turn it around today. You saw it, I was a little bit overwhelmed at the finish there and had a few tears.
"My team have given me the opportunity today and I thought I’m going to take this one and give it all I’ve got. You’ve seen them work their butts off out there covering all their attacks and I was just super thankful for their work out there today, so to pull it off is the nicest feeling."
Race leader Coryn Rivera (Sunweb) extended her lead by one second after claiming time bonuses at the two intermediate Sprints with Vos now second on general classification at 16 seconds thanks to her finish time bonus. Dani Rowe (WaowDeals) is third overall.
"It’s pretty special, I don’t see myself as a general classification rider so it’s a different mindset I have to put in my head but it is really special to be wearing it and having all the girls believing in me, but it is quite a responsibility," Rivera said." It’s nice to be over halfway, but still, anything can happen and we have to be on our toes."
A fast start to the stage saw the racing stay together until the first intermediate print at Kenilworth, with Rivera taking the honours from Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans)
A break containing Ann-Sophie Duyck (Cervélo-Bigla) and Vita Heine (Team Hitec Products-BIRK Sport) soon went clear, eventually being caught just before the top of the day’s second climb at Burton Dassett Country Park.
The regrouping at the front brought 35 riders together to contest the fast run back to Royal Leamington Spa, which was marked by a flurry of attacks from a multitude of teams and riders, in particular, the Canyon-SRAM squad of defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma, but no cohesive move could stay away.
Coming through the sweeping left-hander into the 400-metre finishing straight alongside Jephson Gardens it was Vos who led out the sprint, but Roy and Bronzini who came past on the long run to the line. Rivera took fourth.
"For sure it was not easy out there," Rivera said. "The girls were really strong today and we had five other than over the last climb so we were just covering attacks. They are trying to make it hard for us."
Coryn Rivera. Source: Getty
