Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) confirmed her status as the best sprinter in the women's peloton by winning stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes, riding ahead of yellow jersey Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ).
The break of the day was caught with 4km to go, and Wiebes' team controlled the run-in to the sprint that fortunately did not see any mass crashes.
Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) opened the sprint about 250 metres from the line, but when Wiebes launched at the 200-metre mark, she quickly went past Dygert and into the lead. Vos followed Wiebes' wheel and went out of her slipstream in the last 50 metres, but Wiebes held on to win.
"It worked out once again. I mean, the team also delivered me again," Wiebes told broadcasters after the finish.
"In the meeting we said today it [stage 4] would be perfect if Anna [van der Breggen] could do the uphill part, like in the last three kilometres. And we went into that position, then Lotte took over and then Anna again. So that was good.
"The last k was a bit chaotic, it was fighting for position, but I'm happy that I could find my way out again." I started a bit too early, but otherwise I was a bit a afraid to get boxed in."
Vos keeps the yellow jersey and took another six bonus seconds through her second-place finish.
"It's nice to get closer, but Lorena again, was very fast on the line," Vos said at the finish. "You know it's going to be chaotic not only in the final, actually from the start it was fast. Then to stay in the front and stay in good position, that's pretty tough. Thanks to the team, that worked really well."
How it unfolded
Covering 130.7km from Saumur to Poitiers with only one fourth-category climb, the stage was expected to finish in a bunch sprint. Rebecca Koerner (Uno-X Mobility) and Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) did not start the stage due to illness, leaving 144 riders in the race.
Despite several attacks, it took an hour until Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) could get away from the peloton. Célia Le Mouel (Ceratizit), Elyne Roussel (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), and Victoire Berteau (Cofidis) all tried to bridge solo but never made it to the front.
Right after Le Mouel was reeled in with 81km to go, Tota Magalhães (Movistar) attacked from the peloton and was followed by Franzi Koch (Picnic-PostNL). They quickly bridged the 40-second gap to Rijnbeek to form a breakaway of three.
When the race reached Richelieu, the ancestral hometown of the 16th-century French statesman, Rijnbeek, Koch, and Magalhães were 1:40 minutes ahead. The narrow streets and a small crash caused splits in the peloton. Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), Liane Lippert (Movistar), Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), Clara Koppenburg (Cofidis), Mona Mitterwallner (Human Powered Health), and Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike) were caught in the second bunch.
While there were crosswinds, they were not strong enough to keep the race apart for long, though, and the second peloton came back after a few kilometres of chasing. The heightened pace had reduced the gap to the breakaway to under a minute, and Rijnbeek had to let go with 60km to go.
Magalhães and Koch went on without her, extending their advantage to 1:44 minutes at the 50km mark again, but when SD Worx-Protime took up the chase for real after the Côte de Marigny climb, the gap quickly melted to 39 seconds with 15km to go.
They were reeled in 4km from the finish, and Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) brought Wiebes to the front with 3.5km to go, then their teammate Anna van der Breggen took over right before the left turn onto a bridge, similar to the pinch point that had caused a mass crash on stage 3.
Van der Breggen led the peloton up the shallow climb after the bridge where Jelena Erić (Movistar) brought Lippert to the front, and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) took the opportunity to slot in ahead of Wiebes.
Kopecky and Van der Breggen traded turns to keep Wiebes at the front until the flamme rouge, then Uno-X Mobility took the front, and Wiebes had found the wheel of Vos, who was following Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal).
On the right side of the road, Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) led out Dygert who then took the wheel of Le Court-Pienaar as the Mauritian champion wound up her sprint.
There was a touch of shoulders between Dygert and Wiebes before Dygert launched, but Wiebes went past between the US rider and the barriers. Vos followed Wiebes but could not beat her to the line while Lara Gillespie sprinted to third place on the left side of the road.
Results
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