Lorena Wiebes sprinted to her second win at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in two days on stage four on Tuesday, after holding off Marianne Vos in Poitiers.
The SD Worx-Protime rider found space on the right of the flat-out bunch just meters to the finish line after being led out by Anna van der Breggen. Vos rode flat-out to Wiebes' left, crossing the finish line only a fraction after her rival, with UAE Team ADQ's Lara Gillespie coming in third.
Victory on stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes marks Wiebes fifth total Tour stage win, and second of the race so far.
It was really rewarding to do this for Lorena," Van der Breggen said of her teammate after the race.
"The girls before also did such an incredible job and then when it’s your moment, you need to do it and the pressure is kind of nice.
"You need to go fast and it’s difficult to know when you go in front so you need to see where Lorena is and when it’s the moment to do it. I felt Lotte [Kopecky] finished quite early so I did it again and when [Lorena's] there in the end, she will find the gap and she can go out. So I’m happy that we have Lorena, who is an amazing rider and I feel really honoured to work for her."
How it happened
Stage four offered another chance for the sprinters after yesterday’s finish-line chaos. One categorised climb coloured the otherwise flat course in the second half of the race, rising in a 5.4% incline over 0.9km, making this stage the flattest of the Tour.
The first rider to break out of the peloton was VolkerWessels’ Maud Rijnbeek. The 22-year old made a successful break at 92km to go, with attempts to join her made by Celia Le Mouel (CERATIZIT Pro Cycling) and Elyne Roussel (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93). At 86km to go, it appeared that only one of the chasers had succeeded, with Roussel caught by the peloton, and a tentative gap of 1:22 emerging between Le Mouel and the chasing peloton.
10 kilometres later, the average speed of the peloton had clocked up to 47.7km/h, and Le Mouel rejoined the group, as Franziska Koch (Picnic PostNL) and Movistar’s Ana Vitória Magalhães attacked out of the peloton, powering towards the race lead and joining the lone Rijnbeek at 78km to the finish.
As the road thinned through the town of Richelieu, the peloton drew out, navigating tight turns, giving the breakaway trio precious additional seconds. On the exit from the town, the peloton began to crumble, splitting into three distinct groups as the pace slowed to 21km/h.
The peloton ultimately reassembled, and Koch and Magalhães held a healthy lead, 1:46 ahead of the peloton. Koch took the 25 points in the intermediate sprint, with Magalhaes just behind. Further back, Vos arranged herself on the wheel of Wiebes in anticipation of the intermediate sprint, the rider in green looking back as she crossed the sprint line ahead of the yellow jersey in their first fight of the race.
The peloton was in a frenzy after the sprint, caught in a cross tailwind as the speed picked up, riders clinging on to the peloton. At the Cote de Margny category 4 climb, the Brazilian Movistar rider took the top two points on offer.
Despite maintaining a strong distance between the peloton for the remainder of the race, as the stage moved into Poitiers, the break came into view, and it became a race for the sprinters.
At the head of the peloton, teams arranged themselves, Visma-Lease a Bike and SD Worx-Protime leading out the race. Anna van der Breggen moved to the front of Wiebes, as Vos rode in the slipstream of AG Insurance-Soudal’s Kim Le Court, preparing for the final sprint.
In a nail-biting battle between the Tour's two top sprinters, Wiebes finished just half a bike length ahead of Vos in her second win of the Tour so far, her second in a row.
Results
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage 4, Saumur > Poitiers (130.7km)
1. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), in 2:54:11
2. Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike)
3. Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ)
4. Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels)
5. Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto)
6. Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal)
7. Rachele Barbieri (Ita) Picnic PostNL
8. Linda Zanetti (Sui) Uno-X Mobility
9. Alicia González (Esp) St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93
10. Sarah Van Dam (Can) CERATIZIT, all at same time
Tour de France Femmes general classification after stage 4
1. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 11:13:11
2. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +12s
3. Kim Le Court (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, at same time
4. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, +18s
5. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Pol) Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto, +22s.
6. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-SUEZ, + 25s
7. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +27s
8. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, at same time
9. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) Lidl-Trek, +32s
10. Chloé Dygert (USA) Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto, at same time
