After narrowly missing out on the previous three stages, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) finally celebrated a stage victory on stage 4 of the Vuelta Femenina. In a uphill sprint, she finished ahead of her teammate Anna van der Breggen, with Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) taking third place.
Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek) and Marta Jaskulska (Human Powered Health) held off the chasing peloton for a long time in a breakaway but were caught 2.5km from the finish.
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“We had to be patient. Two times second, one time not so great – we really believed as a team that we were able to win, but we had to wait for it,” said Kopecky, happy to finally cross the line first.
“It was the easiest stage of the ones we had already. Some longer climbs, but steady, but this final was really hard. At one moment, I really thought we were not going to catch the break anymore.
“Then the pace went so high, and in these final few kilometres it was attack after attack. Luckily my teammates were just on fire and could respond to all of them. I just had to jump from wheel to wheel. In the end we were in the perfect position with Liane going first into the corner. With Anna in second place as well, that’s great,” Kopecky looked back on the stage.
Due to the 10-second time bonification for the stage winner, Kopecky also takes the GC lead and the red jersey from Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez).
“It’s really nice to wear the red jersey, but of course we’re hunting for victories. We passed the intermediate sprint, I saw Franziska going for it and was like ‘ah no, that’s two seconds more’. But I could just save a little bit more, and I knew that if I win the stage, I have the red jersey, so we focused on that,” said the new overall leader.
How it unfolded
The 115.6km stage from Monforte de Lemos to Antas de Ulla was mostly rolling and included two third-category…
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