Cyclocross ace Puck Pieterse took her first professional road stage in Wednesday’s wet mini-Classic stage starting in the Netherlands and ending in Belgium. It was a Dutch woman outsprinting another Dutch woman, yellow jersey Demi Vollering. Puck moved up to second on GC and took over the Queen of the Mountains category. Vollering kept the yellow jersey the day before the race hits France. Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres was prominent on Wednesday and came in 12th.
The Course
Still not in France, the Tour de France Femmes had a mini-Classics day in which is started with Amstel Gold Race climbs after the gun in Valkenburg, the Netherlands and ended with the famous climbs of Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Côte de la Redoute, Côte des Forges and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. It was rainy.
🚲 Stage 4 / Étape 4 🚲⠀
🚩 @gemvalkenburg
🏁 @VilledeLiege
📏 122,7 km
⏰ 12:25 CEST > 15:59 CEST
⛰ 2×2️⃣c, 3×3️⃣c, 3×4️⃣c
💚 km 67,5#TDFF2024 pic.twitter.com/m3CGXZ6Axy— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) August 14, 2024
Vallieres’ compatriot and teammate Clara Emond did not start.
Silvia Persico scored all the QOM points atop all the Cat. 3 and 4 Amstel Gold Race climbs like Bemelerberg, Cauberg and Geulhemmerberg. Sara Martin then took off solo as the race traveled into Belgium. Just before the Mont Theux climb, Maggie Coles-Lyster abandoned the race. Martin didn’t get to crest Mont Theux before she was caught; Yara Kastelijn took the QOM points.
The sprinters had been jettisoned by Côte de la Redoute (1.6 km of 8.6 percent). Canadian Olivia Baril was at the front of the pack. Pieterse made the first dig and was the first over the top.
In between Redoute and Côte des Forges, Vallieres accelerated at the front of the peloton.
Côte des Forges (1.5 km at 6.9 percent) saw the peloton still quite large. Justine Ghekiere was first over and kept going, hitting the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons (1.3 km of 10.1 percent) with an 18-second lead. Vallieres again pushed at the pointy end of the greatly-reduced field. When Ghekiere was caught, Vollering and Katarzyna Niewiadoma attacked. Pieterse clung on and took more maximum QOM points at the crest; she will wear the polka dots on Thursday.
There were 12 km, an intermediate sprint and a little more climbing to go before the finish line in Liège. Vallieres led the chase group. Vollering…
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