A tough day out in the Welsh hills
WORDS: Luke Williams
IMAGES: HONOR ELLIOTT
Stage 4 of the Women’s Tour saw the action spread across two countries, with the 144.7km stage starting in Wrexham and finishing in Welshpool. The day promised to see the first real GC shakeup of the race, with two major hills in the middle of the day poised to split the field.
The day began with a downpour, Lizzie Holden explained post-stage.
“Just as we were starting, the rain came down which always makes things a little bit more tricky. We knew in the first part there was a sprint which Maike was going to go for, and then in the end there was a breakaway that sucked up the majority of the points.”
Maike van der Duin held a healthy lead in the red sprints jersey going into the day, sitting on 11 points, seven clear of her nearest rival. The first intermediate sprint of the day came in Chirk, with 15.2km of the stage covered. While the breakaway took the first and second spots, Maike managed to skip up the road to grab a point and further extend her lead in the competition.
As the day went on, a group of four riders managed to wrestle free of the peloton, but this group was eventually reeled in as the main difficulties of the day came into view. This meant that the race returned to square one on the slopes of Hirnant Pass, with an elite group of ten riders then getting away from a large chasing group behind.
With the finish line fast approaching, the peloton began to work to try and bring the breakaway riders back. We were working hard to keep Lizzie safe in the peloton.
“We came to a point where the gap came down to like 20 seconds and we could see them a few times, but it never actually came back together. Gradually the group got smaller towards the finish. Majo, Maike and Gladys all did a really good job chasing too, so that was really nice to have their support,” added Lizzie.
The elastic finally snapped between the break and chasers, with Lizzie coming home in the main group, 1:16 behind the stage winner Grace Brown (FDJ - Nouvelle Aquitaine – Futuroscope).
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s stage and beyond, Lizzie sits in a good position just outside of the top 20 in the general classification while Maike maintains her seven-point lead in the sprint standings.
Stage 5 will see the riders head out from Pembrey Country Park towards Black Mountain, where the final GC will likely be decided. The Queen stage of this Women’s Tour will also feature two category 1 climbs in the QOM competition, as well as two more intermediate sprints. You can catch the action live on GCN + or Eurosport, with highlights available on ITV4.
Highlights from today's stage will be available on ITV from 8PM.