Puck Pieterse has outsprinted race leader Demi Vollering to win the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes and move to second overall.
Defending champion Vollering, who began the day with a three-second lead, extended her advantage to 22 seconds on the general rankings.
The 122.7-kilometre ride from Valkenburg to Liège came down to a three-way battle for the stage win.
Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma, riding for Canyon-Sram Racing, had to settle for third place as Dutch duo Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Vollering (Team SD Worx-Protime) raced for the line in a photo finish.
Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) was the best of the Australians in 34th position, one minute and 58 seconds behind Pieterse, while Olympic individual time trial champion Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) was back in 56th place, 8:36 adrift.
"The last few days I had super good legs, first day I had good legs, the second day I had good legs and today I didn't feel my legs at all," Pieterse said.
"To take the win here, in a sprint against Demi is a dream come true."
The first attack came from Spain's Sara Martin, with the Movistar rider breaking away with over 90km still to ride.
While Martin did put over a minute between herself and the peloton, she was eventually clawed back.
Martin did have a chance to catch her breath while out in front, as the race came to a standstill at a railway crossing, and the field patiently waited for a train to pass.
Belgian Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) was first to reach the top of the penultimate of eight climbs and with 23km remaining decided to take her chance and leave the bunch behind.
Vollering began pushing the peloton and they reeled Ghekiere in before the top of the final climb.
At this point, Vollering made her move and along with Pieterse and Niewiadoma, had a 30-second lead going into the final kilometre.
Niewiadoma, third overall in the last two Tour de Femmes, attacked with 700 metres left, but she peaked too soon and it was Pieterse who came out on top as rain poured down in Liège.
Gigante is 34th overall, with countrywomen Neve Bradbury (40th) and Brown (51st) rounding out the Australian top three.
Reuters/ABC
