The fact that everyone expected her to triumph today doesn’t take anything out from Marlen Reusser’s amazing performance - one of the best victories in her career, if not the best. The reigning ITT World Champion excelled in the individual time trial of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to defeat Dutch rouleur Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) by 4” and put 18” on Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), the best amongst the rest of the GC contenders on a day where defending Tour champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma | Lease a Bike) lost more than two minutes to the winner. Even more was conceded by Sigrid Haugset (Uno-X Mobility), who lost her Yellow Jersey on the way to Dijon after her excellent solo victory in the Jura mountains on the eve. Reusser is of course the new overall leader of this Grande Boucle, with 14” on Vollering and 54” on Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly). The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift now enters a new phase, with two demanding mid-mountain stages to come in Belleville-en-Beaujolais and Tournon-sur-Rhône ahead of the much-anticipated mountaintop finish in Mont Ventoux.
As of 14:51 CEST, Romina Hinojosa (Lotto Intermarché Ladies) became the first out of 138 riders to take the start in the 4th stage of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The Mexican rider thus inaugurated the individual time trial between Gévrey-Chambertin and Dijon, with a 21-kilometer course split in three parts: 7 flat kilometres, followed by an uphill section of around 5 km with a number of hills and a climb of 1.8 km at 6.9% average, and then 9 km of rolling terrain into the finish.
Extraordinary performance by Lieke Nooijen
Hinojosa duly was the first rider across the finish line, recording a time of 31’24”. Noémie Abgrall (Ma Petite Entreprise) immediately clocked a faster one, 30’33”, only to be knocked off the hot seat by her teammate Célia Le Mouël, who set a benchmark of 28’50”. The French national champion would in turn see her performance defeated by Sandrine Tas (Lotto Intermarché Ladies) by just 96 hundredths of a second. Half an hour later, her compatriot Lotte Claes (Fenix-Premier Tech) came across the finish line in 28’25”, at 44.34 kph average.
The effort by the Belgian national champion would only stand for a few minutes at the top of the standings, as Visma | Lease a Bike’s Lieke Nooijen set a new fastest time with 27’34” at an average of 45.70 kph, 51” better than Claes. Powerhouses like Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) or Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon//SRAM) fell short of improving the Dutch cyclist’s ride.
Marlen Reusser takes the win - and the overall lead!
The GC women’s time to shine came in the last hour of the race. Anna Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) clocked 28’39”; Paula Blasi (UAE Team L’Imad), 28’34”; Blasi’s teammate, Dominika Wlodarczyk, 28’52”. The main favorite then took the start in her rainbow jersey, and she was the only who could defeat Nooijen’s time: Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team) was 20” better than her Dutch rival in the intermediate time check at kilometre 9.7, and then set the new fastest time in Dijon with 27’30” at 45.82 kph - that is, just 4” faster than Nooijen, which gives a good measure of what an extraordinary second half of the ITT the Visma rider pulled off.
As for the rest of the favorites, it was a matter of limiting the damage that Reusser could make. Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) put out a great effort to clock 27’48” at 45.32 kph average, just 18” worse than Reusser. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’Imad) and Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM) reached the finish line 1’03” and 1’09” behind Reusser, respectively. Less fortunate were Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), who conceded 2’13” and 2’23” to the day’s winner. Last but not least, yesterday’s hero Sigrid Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) was 3’06” slower than Reusser and, as a consequence, lost her Yellow Jersey too in favor of the Swiss time trial specialist, who made the most of this stage seemingly tailor-made for her.
