Leah Thomas wins inaugural Women's Tour of Scotland
America's Leah Thomas claimed the inaugural Women's Tour of Scotland title after sprinting to victory on stage three.
The 30-year-old began the final 118.3km stage to Edinburgh seven seconds behind general classification leader Alison Jackson, winner of stage two on Saturday.
But she showed impressive power to edge off an elite leading group of riders in the final bunch sprint and overtake her rival for the win, also sealing the Motorola Solutions Queen of the Sprints jersey in the process.
"Crossing the finish line in first was amazing. I would not be able to claim the jersey without the work of this team," said Thomas.
"They were amazing all day and we knew we had multiple cards to play – it just happened to come down to a sprint so I knew it would be my job to seal the deal. I was confident I could win the race if it came down to a bunch sprint, I really wanted to bring it home for the team. I wouldn’t call myself a pure sprinter, but I did the absolute best I could to win the Tour."
Elise Chabbey, Thomas' Team Bigla teammate, crossed just behind in second but that wasn’t enough to move her up enough in the GC standings as Jackson held on for second.
Meanwhile Stine Borgli repeated her third-placed second-stage finish in Edinburgh to finish third overall in Scotland.
With 5km left to ride it had looked like Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Team Bigla) was set to win the race with a ten second lead, although she was caught on the final climb.
The Dane still took home the EventScotland Queen of the Mountains Jersey for her team after an impressive five victories in the competition over the course of the weekend.
Stage 3 was a resounding success for Team Bigla in general too with 22-year-old Belgian rider Nikola Noskova taking the Deloitte Best Young Rider Jersey, while Anna Shackley secured the Best Scottish Rider Jersey in the capital.
