Germany’s Lisa Brennauer sprinted to victory in the rain in the fourth stage of the Aviva Women’s Tour in Stevenage, taking the overall lead in the process.
The European Under-23 road race champion, Sabrina Stultiens, and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini had broken away 33km from the finish and it took until the final kilometre for the main group to catch them. That set up a bunch sprint in slippery conditions and Brennauer’s Velocio-Sram team organised themselves well. The world time trial champion was able to produce a burst of speed to cross the line ahead of Sweden’s Emma Johansson and Lotta Lepisto, the Finland national champion. The overnight leader, Christine Majerus, finished fourth and lost the leader’s yellow jersey.
Britain’s Hannah Barnes finished fifth for the second consecutive day and moved up to fifth place overall.
Sunday’s final stage starts in Marlow and follows a demanding hilly course before finishing in Hemel Hempstead.
Brennauer told the official website: “When the rain came I knew it would be tricky but I went around the final corners safely. The chase was difficult because of the undulating course and the quality of the riders up the road and I wasn’t quite sure we would see them again before the finish.
“It’s going to be an exciting day and it is so close that there are seconds on the road that everybody will fight for before the final finish but me and my team are going to do our best to bring this jersey home.
“We raced very well today as a team and that will give us confidence for the final day. Our morale is very good. We have had a rider on the podium of every stage. The spirit is good and that is a very good way to start the final stage.”
Barnes took over from Lucy Garner as the best British rider and best Under-23 rider in the race. She said: “It was a crazy finish, very technical in the last 10km and then it started raining on top of that.
“We drove the last 12km of the finish on Friday night going to our hotel and you could see difficult it was going to be. The last 10km were very narrow and two riders were away but with the rain nobody particularly wanted to take up the chase and then it was far from a straight finish.”
