Esther Kiel has won the third competition in the Grand Prix on natural ice. The marathon skater from De Knipe in Friesland was the fastest in the sprint of a leading group of five after just over 80 kilometers. Tessa Snoek finished second in Lulea, Sweden, Laura van Ramshorst came third.
The third race in the Grand Prix, the first of this season in Lulea, was initially dominated by a long breakaway. Elsemieke van Maaren and Sara van Vliet drove away immediately after the start and kept it up for almost 50 kilometers. The maximum lead of the duo was 2 minutes. But the peloton caught the escapees, after which the group stayed together for a long time. It wasn’t until the last kilometer that five of them broke away from the peloton to battle for the win in the sprint.
So it ended up at Kiel. The 26-year-old rider of the successful BDM-BTZ team is having a strong season. She already booked her sixth victory in Lapland: she won four times on artificial ice, on the Weissensee she was already the strongest on natural ice.
Source: ANP
