Yara Kastelijn, who took the Queen of the Mountains jersey from a breakaway on Stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes, soloed to victory on Wednesday’s midway point of the second edition. The Fenix-Deceuninck rider jumped up 25 places in the GC to seventh. Stage 4’s top-4 were all Dutch. Lotte Kopecky defended her yellow jersey with grip and elan, and now she leads her teammate Demi Vollering by 43 seconds. Olivia Baril was the top Canadian in 33rd.
The Course
The longest stage of the second edition, Wednesday’s route contained five categorized climbs spread out over 177 km from Cahors to Rodez. The last climb was Cat. 3 Côte de Lavernhe cresting 8.9 km from the finish, although there was a steep rise to the line.
🚲 Stage 4 / Étape 4 🚲
🚩 @Cahors_Agglo 🏁 @VilledeRodez
📏 177,1 km
⏰ 12:40 CEST > 17:27 CEST
⛰ 2×3️⃣c, 2×4️⃣c, 1×2️⃣c
💚 km 130,6💛#TDFF2023#WatchTheFemmes @GoZwift pic.twitter.com/WcCPJXV2Av
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 26, 2023
Finally, we had a big breakaway, and some of the 14 riders in the group seemed determined to conduct Queen of the Mountains business. Perhaps Kastelijn wanted the dots back from teammate Julie Van de Velde, but Anouska Koster and Kathrin Hammes had their interests too. By the time they hit the second climb of the day, Cat. 4 Côte de Falgeyras, their lead was 9:40. Koster crested first and took over the QOM lead.
With 55 km and three categorized climbs remaining, the break still held over 9:00. Who would benefit the most GC-wise if the escape survived? Zaaf refugee Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health) was best positioned at +2:21, but Kastelijn and Alice Maria Arzuffi were also both under +4:00. Fifteen kilometers later, the 14 fugitives still had 7:45, Jayco-AlUla pulling the peloton.
Côte de Colombiès was the middle climb, and there Koster again took full QOM points. Even before the penultimate climb of Côte de Moyrazès, the breakaway started to splinter. Yara Kastelijn faced the final climb alone, with Lotte Kopecky free of the favorites group +2:55 and Kastelijn’s breakmates spread all over the road in between.
🏁 19KM
💥 @Yarakastelijn attacks. @CordonRagot tries to follow.
💥 @Yarakastelijn attaque. @CordonRagot tente de suivre.#TDFF2023 #WatchTheFemmes @GoZwift pic.twitter.com/7unRznJ44M
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 26, 2023
Kastelijn’s lead grew on the Côte de Lavernhe…
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