A strong breakaway of 10 riders dominated stage 3 of the Emakumeen Bira. Pauliena Rooijakkers (WaowDeals) attacked from this break but was caught shortly before the finish, and the sprint was won by Amy Pieters (Boels Dolmans). After the race, Rooijakkers said that her teammate Anouska Koster was the rider who initiated the breakaway. `Anouska attacked, and a lot of girls attacked behind her. There was another girl who attacked to bridge to the first group, and I went with her. Then we were two up in the break.`ADVERTISEMENT With this strength in numbers, Rooijakkers went on her long solo attack. She had an advantage of over a minute at one point, but her brave bid for the stage win eventually came to naught. `Our plan was that I would attack, and we would always have Anouska for the sprint. I attacked on the last long climb, it was still 30km to go. I was feeling good, but I had small problems in the downhill, and they could see me riding. I tried everything, but they caught me four kilometres from the finish. Maybe it is easier to close the gap than to stay out front.` Clara Koppenburg (Cervélo-Bigla) and Emilia Fahlin (Wiggle-High5) normally work for their teammates, but on stage 3 they went into the break that had a four-minute advantage on the peloton at one point and ended up sprinting for victory.
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