Lorena Wiebes' (SD Works-Pro Time) victory on stage 3 of the Simac Ladies Tour was not at all outlandish. The surprise was that Wiebes was wearing the regular SD Works-Pro Time kit, not the European champion jersey or the race's green points jersey.

CyclingNews contacted Wiebes' team and the race organization about this and learned that the confusion was due to a mistake at the stage 2 awards ceremony.

On Wednesday, Wiebes won stage 2, 25 points ahead of stage 1 winner and GC leader Zoe Beckstedt (Canyon-SRAM), respectively. According to race and UCI regulations, the first tiebreaker in such cases is the number of stage wins, but both riders had won one stage.

The race jury therefore awarded the green jersey to Wiebes, since he had the more recent number of stage wins.

This was discovered on the morning of stage 3, after Wiebes had been given his green sprint suit and number. Since Zoe Beckstedt was leading both overall and in points, it was necessary to find a substitute wearer for the green jersey.

Normally, this would be the second-place finisher, in this case Vives. However, if a player is the current champion, he is entitled to wear the champion's jersey and the classification jersey is passed to the next player.

Since Vives is the European champion and her teammate Lotte Kopecký is the world champion in third place in the points standings after the second stage, the green jersey went to Lieke Neuen (Vimalies a Bike), who finished second on stage 1.

However, the green jersey was handed to Lieke Neuen (Vimalies a Bike), who finished second on stage 1.

However, this last-minute change meant that Vives had to race without her sprint suit. She had brought her European Champion design warmer jacket to the start, but not her white sprint suit with blue stripes and yellow stars. Instead, she borrowed a sprint suit from teammate Femke Gerritze for the race and eventually won the high-speed Echelon stage in Seevolde.

Immediately after the finish, Wiebes once again donned the European Champion jacket at the stage 3 awards ceremony, and with her second consecutive win, she now leads the points standings by 10 points over Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), who finished second on stage 3, The European champion can wear the green jersey on stage 4.