Demi Vollering finished second in the streets of Rodez behind Yara Kastelijn, the only rider who managed to stay in front from the early breakaway. In the fourth and longest stage of the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift, the riders for the general classification bombarded each other, but did not manage to significantly alter their standings. An industrious Lotte Kopecky of Team SD Worx retained her yellow jersey and teammate Demi Vollering sneaked eight seconds away from her rivals via a firm final sprint. “All in all, this is a successful day for Team SD Worx,” Lotte Kopecky concluded.
In this fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes, a large group was given a lot of leeway by the peloton. At around 40 kilometres from the end, their lead was still around an impressive 10 minutes. Team SD Worx had Christine Majerus at the front. “She is of course super strong, but the lead was really big at one point. So Elena Cecchini and Lorena Wiebes led the chase on behalf of our team at the head of the peloton. Later, Marlen Reusser and Mischa Bredewold also did a lot of work, so the lead dwindled,” Demi Vollering said in her post-race analysis.
Lotte Kopecky proved to be an important teammate for Vollering. She attacked several times, then rode alone in front of the peloton for a while in pursuit of the big group. Kopecky said, “I tried to help Demi by getting ahead. Our main goal remains to win the Tour de France Femmes with Demi. I had hoped she could jump to me and that way we could put pressure on the opposition.”
Demi Vollering concluded, “I didn’t really get away from the chasing group. Such a long and tough stage chops it up and takes away some of the explosiveness. I was happy with how Lotte got over that climb. Mentally, it helps to have such a strong teammate in the group of favourites. In the end, we caught several riders from the early breakaway. The final climb to the finish in Rodez was super chaotic. I doubted I had won, but apparently someone was still in front of me. I still gained eight seconds on my main competitors in the general classification. Of course I had hoped for more, but this is a great day for our team.”
