Femke Markus wins Eneco Tour Women stage 3 in 2026

Femke Markus won stage 3 of the 2026 Eneco Tour Women for Team SD Worx – Protime, completing the Sittard–Watersley stage in 2:11:44. Lieke Nooijen and Maud Rijnbeek finished five seconds behind, with Pfeiffer Georgi also listed at the same gap in fourth.

The narrow margin at the front defined the result. Markus was clear of the chasing group by five seconds, but the fight immediately behind remained tightly compressed: Nooijen, Rijnbeek and Georgi shared the recorded gap, while Letizia Borghesi and Charlotte Kool were only one second further back.

That made this less a victory built on a large separation than a result decided within a compact front group. Markus took the win, while the podium places were separated from fourth by the published ranking despite the same five-second deficit being recorded for all three riders.

How it unfolded

With no intermediate race positions available, the final result provides the clearest structure. Markus finished first for SD Worx – Protime, five seconds ahead of Nooijen of Team Visma | Lease a Bike and Rijnbeek of VolkerWessels Cycling Team. The winning gap was enough to establish a clear winner, but not enough to divide the rest of the leading quartet on time.

Georgi completed the group on five seconds, followed by Borghesi and Kool at six seconds. The move from the podium places to fifth was therefore only one second, underlining how little separated the leading positions once Markus had gone clear.

Markus finds the margin that mattered

Markus’s advantage was small in absolute terms but decisive in the stage classification. Nooijen and Rijnbeek were both close enough to finish on the same recorded gap, yet neither matched Markus’s final time. The result gives SD Worx – Protime the stage win without suggesting a large break in the front of the race.

The top four were covered by five seconds from first to fourth. That compression matters because it places the emphasis on Markus’s five-second advantage rather than on a broad separation between several groups. The winner created the only time gap of real size within the leading quartet, while the next three riders remained together on the published figures.

Nooijen and Rijnbeek share the closest chase

Nooijen finished second and Rijnbeek third, both five seconds behind Markus. Their identical recorded gap makes this the closest contest to the stage win in the final classification, although the result still places Nooijen ahead of Rijnbeek. Georgi was listed on the same gap in fourth, keeping Team Picnic PostNL within the immediate podium fight.

For Rijnbeek, the result also gave VolkerWessels Cycling Team a second rider in the top seven, with Florien Bolks finishing ninth seconds behind Markus. The team therefore placed one rider on the podium and another in the next group of the leading results, although the published times do not show how that outcome developed during the stage.

The front remained tightly packed behind the podium

Borghesi and Kool were separated from the podium by one second, at six seconds down. Bolks followed at nine seconds, leaving a three-second gap between sixth and seventh. That was the first clearer step in the top 10 after the compressed battle for the podium.

Quinty Ton, Nienke Vinke and Silke Smulders all finished ten seconds behind Markus. Their shared deficit completed a result in which the top 10 were contained within ten seconds, with the principal separation coming between the winner and the group rather than through wide gaps further down the order.

Why Markus took the stage

Markus’s five-second advantage was the decisive fact of stage 3. Nooijen, Rijnbeek and Georgi reached the same published deficit, while Borghesi and Kool remained within one further second, but none could reduce the margin to the winner. The result therefore combines a clear stage victory for Markus with an exceptionally close contest for the remaining podium places.

Behind the winner, Team Visma | Lease a Bike and VolkerWessels Cycling Team claimed second and third, while Team Picnic PostNL stayed within the same five-second bracket. SD Worx – Protime also placed Vinke in ninth, adding further depth to a top 10 that was separated by only ten seconds from first to last.

Eneco Tour Women Stage 3 2026 Result