On the long final straight in Poitiers it was Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx - Protime) in the Green Jersey who secured the win on Stage 4, beating Yellow Jersey Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) to the line. It is a second stage win in two days for dominant sprinter Wiebes and a record fifth Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift victory for the Dutchwoman. The bunch sprint top five was completed by Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ), Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) and Chloe Dygert (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto). Vos remains in yellow, leading by 12” in the GC, ahead of Wiebes and Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance - Soudal Team). After her heavy crash on Monday Demi Vollering (FDJ – SUEZ) was fit to ride and finished the stage safely, remaining sixth in the general classification at 25”.
145 riders take the start
Norwegian rider Rebecca Koerner from Uno-X Mobility was the only rider not to have started the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, leaving only 145 riders in the peloton at the start in Saumur. After her heavy crash in Angers at the end of Stage 3 Demi Vollering (FDJ – Suez) faced a late fitness test and underwent two concussion protocols, finally being able to start the stage.
The early attacks
Following numerous attacks and counterattacks in the opening kilometres, riding at a rapid pace after going solo at the front Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) had covered 47.8 km during the first hour of the race. She was soon joined by Franziska Koch (Team Picnic PostNL) and Ana Vitória Magalhães (Movistar Team) and by km 55 the trio had created a gap of over a minute on the bunch, which was being disrupted by crosswinds behind.
Two at the front
By km 70 Rijnbeek could no longer take the pace and left Koch and Magalhães alone at the front, those two accelerating to increase their lead to 1’16” by the time they reached the intermediate sprint marker at Soudun (km 86.7). Koch crossed the intermediate sprint line ahead of Magalhães, with the bunch sprint behind them won by Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) in the Green Jersey, ahead of Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) in the Yellow Jersey. On the only categorised climb of the day on the Côte de Marigny (Category 4, 0.9 km at 5.4%, km 101.6) Brazilian rider Magalhães scored her first two points in the mountains classification, the peloton reaching the summit 55" later.
On the charge into Poitiers
As the riders went into the final 10km the peloton trailed by less than 500m. It was an all out effort by the two riders in the breakway but the bunch were hunting them down, less than 30" adrift, whilst Koch was awarded the most Combative rider prize for her persistent efforts. The peloton finally overtook the valiant Koch and Magalhães with 4km to go and in an exciting finale it was once again Wiebes who delivered the goods, powering over the line ahead of closest challenger Vos for a record fifth Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift victory.
