Wednesday, August 14, 2024 at 3:59 PM
Puck Pieterse has won the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes. The Fenix-Deceuninck rider beat Demi Vollering and Katarzyna Niewiadoma in a thrilling three-man sprint in the classic stage to Liège. Vollering remains the leader in the general classification.
The fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes was a special one. The stage started in the tourist town of Valkenburg (world famous in cycling country thanks to the Amstel Gold Race), after which the finish was 122 kilometres later in the Belgian Liège. It was a kind of combination of the Amstel, at the beginning of the stage, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, at the end of the stage. Spectacle was expected in advance.
Persico collects mountain points
The first 25 kilometres of the stage included four categorised climbs. At the top of the Bemelerberg (twice), the Cauberg and the Geulhemmerberg, a lot of mountain points could be earned. Silvia Persico had clearly made this a goal, she always reached the top first. The Italian always stayed ahead of Yara Kastelijn, which allowed her to collect a lot of points for the mountain classification.
After the first hilly zone we finally saw an early escapee. Sara Martín chose the hare path on behalf of Movistar. The Spanish rider rode up a lead of almost a minute on the wet roads. That this lead was limited was thanks to the work of the women of SD Worx-Protime at the head of the peloton.
Martín in beeld – photo: Cor Vos
Closed railway crossing, Kastelijn on Mont-Theux
Even before the second hilly zone, it was time for an intermediate sprint. There we saw a new sprint between Lorena Wiebes and Charlotte Kool, but Marianne Vos also got involved. However, it was Kool again who took control of the sprint. The wearer of the green jersey gained some confidence, but above all collected extra points for the points classification.
A short delay due to a closed railway crossing meant that we had to wait a bit longer on the Walloon hills, but the final started quickly. On the Mont-Theux, the first climb of hill zone two, the pace was immediately high. At the top of the difficult climb Kastelijn jumped away, she took a few extra points for the mountain classification.
The peloton in pictures – photo: Cor Vos
Fenix-Deceuninck at the Redoute
Then, many teams tried to organize themselves in the run-up to the Côte de la Redoute. It were the women of Fenix-Deceuninck who took the lead in the first few hundred meters of the Redoute. Puck Pieterse, Pauliena Rooijakkers and Kastelijn showed themselves with a solid pace. The peloton was therefore thinned out considerably, a number of big names such as the winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the newly crowned Olympic time trial champion Grace Brown even had to let go.
A group of about 25 riders came over the top of the Redoute. SD Worx-Protime wanted to control it afterwards, but still had to counter quite a few attacks. The pace also slowed down a bit, we saw a few groups join the peloton again. Those riders were happy that on the Côte de Forges the classification riders were still waiting to see what was going on.
Race explodes at Roche-aux-Faucons
Justine Ghekiere took full advantage of it. The Belgian rider saw an opportunity and attacked at the top. Ghekiere quickly gained a lead of 20 seconds, but that was it. The AG Insurance-Soudal rider was the first to arrive at the foot of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. It was a bit of a wait, but eventually we saw the favorites come into action on that climb.
It was the yellow jersey itself, and of course we are talking about Demi Vollering, who took the initiative. The Dutch rider went to the front 600 meters from the top and set a particularly high pace. Only Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Pieterse and Rooijakkers could follow. The foursome went up and over Ghekiere and reached the top of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons together. Pieterse was the first to reach the top and will start Thursday’s stage in the polka dot jersey.
Vollering, Unknown and Pieterse
However, Vollering did not want to continue with four. The chasing group, including Juliette Labous, Shirin van Anrooij and Maví Garcia, seemed to be able to make the connection again. That did not work, because Vollering shook the tree again. Rooijakkers was the victim, she was blown back to group two. Vollering also took the bonus seconds and thus extended her lead in the general classification.
Rooijakkers’ release also ensured that Vollering now started to participate. Vollering, Niewiadoma and Pieterse therefore continued to run further. They reached the last ten kilometres with a lead of 30 seconds. The cooperation remained good until the last kilometres, which allowed them to sprint for the victory with three.
Exciting sprint
Niewiadoma had other plans. The Polish knew she would have to give in a sprint with three and so she decided to try with a late attack. Vollering was soon on her wheel, Niewiadoma’s attempt was neutralized almost immediately. Pieterse then started the sprint first and seemed to be going to win for a long time, but Vollering came very close in the last meters. Photo finish!
Pieterse and Vollering had to wait a long time for the verdict, but eventually Pieterse was declared the winner. The young Dutch woman – who thus took her first professional victory – managed to win with an ultimate jump and thus beat Vollering – who did very well in the general classification – at the finish line. Niewiadoma came third. The group of pursuers finished at a distance of almost 30 seconds.
RIT AK C PNT MOUNTAIN YOUTH