With their hot run of form continuing, Lucy Kennedy has won Stage 3 of Battle Recharge, and moved into the lead on General Classification as the High5 Dream Team have now had three riders take the leaders jersey in a complete team effort.

After setting the early pace and protecting race leader Em Roper, the stage was certainly not a straightforward one for Kennedy, who found herself trailing the peloton by minutes after an unfortunate puncture on the opening Queen of the Mountain climb of the day.

‘I’d spent about 95% of the first lap on the front controlling things which was fun, then in the last few hundred meters of the QOM I got a flat front and the cars were way back because the peloton was in pieces, so I had to calmly wait for our car to come by and change the wheel. We weren’t allowed to pace back with the team car so I had a nice little ITT to get back on! I just rode it controlled and conserved energy up until that final climb.

‘It had been a very non-aggressive stage until that point, so I expected to get back on, unless they picked things up knowing I wasn’t there, but it wasn’t too difficult.

‘Today was all about holding onto the jersey. It doesn’t matter whose shoulders it’s on, and the High5 Dream Team are still top three on General Classification, so it’s been a good day out!’ said Kennedy.

Going into the final stage tomorrow, the High5 Dream Team hold the top three positions on General Classification. Lucy Kennedy leads Rebecca Wiasak by eight seconds, with Emily Roper third, 27 seconds behind.

The tour concludes on Monday with the Stage 4 road race beginning at 7am. Follow #BattleRecharge and #NRS17 on Twitter for live updates.