Femke Markus solos to Eneco Tour Women stage 3 win at Watersley

Femke Markus won Stage 3 of the 2026 Eneco Tour Women with a late solo move on the hilly Sittard-Watersley circuit, holding off race leader Lieke Nooijen by five seconds. Maud Rijnbeek took third on the same gap as Nooijen, with Pfeiffer Georgi fourth as the favourites arrived just behind the winner.

The result only tells part of the story. Markus had already forced Visma | Lease a Bike to work hard earlier in the stage before attacking again in the finale, turning the first genuinely hilly road stage of the race into an aggressive battle between SD Worx-Protime and Nooijen’s team. The repeated short climbs and technical roads around Watersley produced the kind of racing anticipated in our Eneco Tour Women route guide.

How it unfolded

Visma | Lease a Bike were aggressive from the opening part of the stage rather than simply trying to protect Nooijen’s orange jersey. Imogen Wolff, Viktória Chladoňová and Katharina Sadnik all worked at the front as the pace began to split the race. Sandrine Tas was caught on the wrong side of one of those moves and at one point had around half a minute to close, eventually making it back after her teammates had committed themselves to the chase.

Once Tas had returned, SD Worx-Protime began to apply pressure of their own. Femke Gerritse was the first to attack, before Markus made the more dangerous move with roughly 40km remaining. She quickly built an advantage of around 30 seconds, forcing Visma | Lease a Bike to respond rather than allowing the move to develop into a serious general-classification threat.

Elena Cecchini then bridged across from the peloton for SD Worx-Protime. Femke de Vries helped shut that phase down with Nooijen on her wheel, while the renewed acceleration proved too much for Tas, who lost contact as the race became increasingly selective.

Nooijen tried to turn defence into attack on the penultimate passage of Watersley, but could not create a lasting gap. Visma | Lease a Bike then resumed control of the group, only for Markus to attack again. This time she made the move stick.

Markus goes again in the finale

With 5km remaining Markus still had around 20 seconds. The twisting roads on the approach to Watersley gave the chasers few easy opportunities to organise, and the responsibility gradually fell back onto Nooijen herself as the leader recognised the danger.

That mattered because Markus had started the stage close enough on general classification that Visma | Lease a Bike could not simply let her ride away. Nooijen drove the chase and substantially reduced the gap, but Markus reached the final climb with enough in hand to finish the job. She crossed the line in 2:11:44, five seconds before Nooijen, Rijnbeek and Georgi.

Borghesi and Charlotte Kool were another second back at +0:06, Florien Bolks finished seventh at +0:09, while Quinty Ton, Nienke Vinke and Silke Smulders completed a top 10 covered by only ten seconds. The narrow gaps disguise how hard the stage had been raced, with repeated attacks rather than one decisive climb shaping the result.

A final win with SD Worx-Protime

The victory carries an extra end-of-season angle for Markus. She is due to join Visma | Lease a Bike for 2027 after four seasons with SD Worx-Protime, making Nooijen a future teammate rather than a long-term rival. This Eneco Tour is set to be Markus’s final race for her current team, and she has signed off her SD Worx-Protime road programme with a solo win against the squad she will join next year.

Nooijen nevertheless did what she needed to do for the overall race. After winning the prologue and Thursday’s Tilburg time trial, she limited her loss to five seconds and retained the orange leader’s jersey. Saturday now takes the race to the Col du VAM, the other major road stage for the general classification, where the short climbs and uphill finish should again give Markus, Nooijen and the other contenders room to attack.

Eneco Tour Women Stage 3 2026 Result