Movistar take charge in hilly Vuelta Femenina stage 4 as mountains loom

One day after initiating the echelons that put several GC riders out of contention for the Vuelta Femenina overall victory, the Movistar Team had a plan for the final of stage 4, too. After setting a hard pace up the final climb, the team’s GC cards Annemiek van Vleuten and Liane Lippert took turns attacking. Although the race came down to a sprint in the end, the attacks helped Emma Norsgaard who sprinted to a second place that “felt like a victory” after an injury-marred spring for the Danish sprinter.

“It was another day where we had a good plan for the final. The idea was to stretch it out with Paula [Patiño] and Floortje [Mackaij], and we set it up exactly as we wanted. It was a nice team effort again with Paula pacing super hard on the climb to set up the attacks. After the GPM we wanted to attack, I did, then Liane took over, and I went again,” Van Vleuten described the action on the plateau after the day’s only classified climb, the third-category Alto de Horche.