After narrowly missing out on the previous three stages, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) finally celebrated a stage victory on stage 4 of the Vuelta Femenina. In a uphill sprint, she finished ahead of her teammate Anna van der Breggen, with Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) taking third place.
Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek) and Marta Jaskulska (Human Powered Health) held off the chasing peloton for a long time in a breakaway but were caught 2.5km from the finish.
Liane Lippert (Movistar) went long in the sprint but was quickly passed by Kopecky on the 200-metre finishing straight. In Kopecky's slipstream, Van der Breggen sprinted to a second place and six bonus seconds.
“We had to be patient. Two times second, one time not so great – we really believed as a team that we were able to win, but we had to wait for it,” said Kopecky, happy to finally cross the line first.
“It was the easiest stage of the ones we had already. Some longer climbs, but steady, but this final was really hard. At one moment, I really thought we were not going to catch the break anymore.
"Then the pace went so high, and in these final few kilometres it was attack after attack. Luckily my teammates were just on fire and could respond to all of them. I just had to jump from wheel to wheel. In the end we were in the perfect position with Liane going first into the corner. With Anna in second place as well, that’s great,” Kopecky looked back on the stage.
Due to the 10-second time bonification for the stage winner, Kopecky also takes the GC lead and the red jersey from Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez).
“It’s really nice to wear the red jersey, but of course we’re hunting for victories. We passed the intermediate sprint, I saw Franziska going for it and was like ‘ah no, that’s two seconds more’. But I could just save a little bit more, and I knew that if I win the stage, I have the red jersey, so we focused on that,” said the new overall leader.
How it unfolded
The 115.6km stage from Monforte de Lemos to Antas de Ulla was mostly rolling and included two third-category climbs. Annelies Nijssen (Lotto-Intermarché) and Marine Allione (Mayenne-Monbana-My Pie) attacked 10km into the stage and started the Alto de Oural with a one-minute advantage.
Allione took maximum points at the top after 19.5km, but the gap dropped to only 15 seconds soon after. Hanson took the opportunity to jump across to the two leaders, and when Jaskulska joined the front group after a brief chase, the break of the day was established.
The peloton was happy to let the four riders go, and their advantage went up to 3:27 minutes at the 50km mark when FDJ United-Suez started to chase with Eglantine Rayer.
The break lost time on the Alto do Hospital but was still 2:10 minutes ahead at the top with 31.6km to go. Allione sprinted for the mountain points and secured the polka-dot mountain jersey for herself.
With SD Worx-Protime contributing Valentina Cavallar to the chase, the peloton slowly but surely reduced the gap. On an unclassified climb 14km from the finish, Jaskulska attacked her breakaway companions. Hanson could follow the attack while Allione and Nijssen were dropped, leaving two strong riders at the front of the race.
Jaskulska and Hanson still had 1:20 minutes in hand, and the terrain was in their favour, at first. They lost only a few seconds on the descent until 6km to go, but at the intermediate sprint with 5.2km to go, the gap had been reduced to 46 seconds.
A climb just inside the 3km mark finally spelled the end for the breakaway after an attack by Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Premier Tech) had increased the pace in the peloton even further. Mareille Meijer (Movistar) also attempted to get away but was not let go, and the race came down to a mass sprint, where Kopecky was triumphant.
Results
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