The fourth stage was the longest stage of this Tour de France Femmes. Jeanne Korevaar and Thalita de Jong were in the breakaway which animated the whole stage.
Wednesday the peloton headed to Rodex in a stage over 177 kilometres. Early in the stage a group of 14 riders took off. Jeanne Korevaar and Thalita de Jong represented Liv Racing TeqFind in this group. The gap went up to a maximum of 10 minutes at a certain point. With 50 kilometres to go the gap was still 9 minutes and the escapees started dreaming of the stage win.
In the last 40 kilometres the riders still had to climb the Côte de Colombiès (6,5 km à 4,2%), Côte de Moyrazès (4,6 km à 5,5%), Côte de Lavernhe (2,2 km à 7,1%) and the finish climb Côte de Saint-Pierre (0,6 km à 9,6%). The peloton increased their speed which made the gap drop quickly. In the mean while the front group was split. Yara Kastelijn was up in the front alone, De Jong was in the first chase group behind the lone leader.
On the final climb the group with GC riders just came back on the group with De Jong, who finished in 11th place after a long day in the breakaway. “It was the plan to get in the day`s breakaway today. On the one hand to have a rider in front who could help Mavi in the finale when possible, on the other hand there is always a possibility to go for a good result. It was great that Jeanne and I were in that group. We got a 10 minutes advantage, but still you had the feeling the group with the GC riders could come back. That eventually happened with 400 metres to go”, De Jong reported after the stage.
“I am happy that I was in the breakaway today. The last two days things didn`t work out for me, so it feels really good to be in the front. I will take this good feeling with me to the next couple of days, then we will try again. However it is time to recover first”, De Jong said.
Mavi Garcia held on in the group with GC-riders for a long time, but lost some valuable time in the final kilometres. She crossed the line as 21st and is now standing 12th in the overall classification. For Rachele Barbieri the fourth stage was also the final stage, the Italian sprinter had to abandon the race today.