Cyclo-cross and mountain bike star Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) claimed her first-ever street victory on Wednesday, beating Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) in a photo-finish on stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
The 22-year-old got here into the finale in Liège as a part of a trio with the defending champion and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM). With 300m to go, she jumped forward of her rivals, holding off Vollering over the road.
Previous to Wednesday, Pieterse had managed top-10 finishes in seven out of the ten street races she had competed on this season. Her win marked a breakthrough on the street, a primary in a profession that counts a number of cyclo-cross and mountain bike World Cup victories.
“It is fairly unbelievable really,” the Dutchwoman mentioned in Liège. “The previous few days, I’ve had tremendous good legs. The primary day I had good legs, the second day I had good legs, and as we speak I did not really feel my legs in any respect. To take the win right here, in a dash towards Demi, that is actually a dream come true.”
The pair waited in suspense after the road, an arm’s size aside in a huddle of photographers, because the photo-finish imagery was examined. Vollering, a two-time winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège had been the favorite coming into the stage, which adopted the very same finale because the Monument.
“I’ve by no means been right here, so I did not know the place the end line was,” Pieterse laughed. Ultimately, the commissaires declared she gained by a tyre’s width, permitting her to have fun along with her Fenix-Deceuninck teammates.
“I reside for this. I labored a lot as much as the Olympic Video games, and when you have got good legs there, you have got good legs right here,” she mentioned.
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Vollering continues to put on the yellow jersey, with a 22-second benefit over now second-placed Pieterse within the basic classification. The Fenix-Deceuninck rider, first over the ultimate two climbs on stage 4, is now the Queen of the mountains.
The way it occurred
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Stage 4 introduced a monumental outing for the Tour de France Femmes peloton, with its closing 40km equivalent to that of the one-day Traditional Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The day counted over 1,800m of elevation, a starkly hilly distinction to the race’s flat opening within the Netherlands, and constructed up in the direction of a trio of ascents within the finale: the Côte de la Redoute, Côte des Forges and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons.
Just one rider dared to take up the breakaway by means of the rain-soaked Ardennes. Sara Martín (Movistar) left the bunch with 88km to go, and with no companions becoming a member of her, pushed out a one-minute benefit on her personal.
The Spaniard scooped up most factors on the day’s first intermediate dash, positioned on the halfway level. There was then an intense battle within the combat for the inexperienced jersey behind her. After a small leadout from her dsm-firmenich PostNL teammates, Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) dashed forward of Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) – as she did to win phases one and two – to tighten her grip on the factors classification.
Martín’s foray ended inside 50km to go, on the third-category climb of Mont-Theux. Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) gained the polka-dot factors over its summit, earlier than launching a short-lived assault herself into the Liège finale.
The peloton hit speeds of virtually 80km/h on the method to the Côte de la Redoute, a climb simply 1.6km lengthy, however pitched at over 9%. Pieterse started edging away from the bunch on the steep gradient, stalked by Niewiadoma and Vollering, and thinning the peloton out on the descent into the valley.
Over the penultimate climb, the Côte des Forges, Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance coverage-Soudal) kicked forward with rain spraying from her tyres. The Belgian, winner of the mountains classification on the Giro d’Italia, shortly drew out a niche, taking 20 seconds on a moist descent that introduced FDJ-Suez’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig to the ground.
On the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, the day’s last launchpad, SD Worx-Protime seized the entrance of the peloton in pursuit of Ghekiere. The Belgian was caught 300m from its summit, mobbed by Vollering and Niewiadoma, who towed Pauliena Rooijakkers and her Fenix-Deceuninck teammate Pieterse, the latter taking the factors excessive to make sure herself the polka-dot jersey on stage 5.
The quartet fought once more for bonus seconds at a dash with 11km to go; six went to Vollering, 4 to Niewiadoma and two to Pieterse, whereas Rooijakkers dropped again.
Powering in the direction of the road, the remaining trio took 30 seconds into the ultimate kilometre. Vollering lead into the finale sporting the yellow jersey, earlier than Niewiadoma pounced forward with a trademark early assault. Pieterse hung in the back of the group.
“I might [play] poker a bit,” she mentioned afterwards. “I knew Kasia would assault, and Demi must comply with, so I simply tried to maintain a poker face.”
Three-hundred metres from the road, Pieterse let fly. “I feel I went fairly early,” she later mentioned, however her timing was excellent to carry off Vollering on the line.
The Tour de France Femmes will enter France for the primary time on this version on Thursday’s fifth stage, a hilly course between Bastogne in Belgium and Amnéville.
Outcomes
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2024, stage 4: Valkenburg > Liège (122.7km)
1. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, in 3:12:28
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM, each at identical time
4. Kimberley (Le Court docket) Pienaar (Mus) AG Insurance coverage-Soudal, +29s
5. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF-Oatly-Cannondale
6. Thalita De Jong (Ned) Lotto Dstny
7. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez
8. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Lidl-Trek
9. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) SD Worx-Protime
10. Mareille Meijering (Ned) Movistar, all at identical time
Basic classification after stage 5
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 7:40:10
2. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +22s
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM, +34s
4. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF-Oatly-Cannondale, +47s
5. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +56s
6. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +1:03
7. Kimberley (Le Court docket) Pienaar (Mus) AG Insurance coverage-Soudal, at identical time
8. Thalita De Jong (Ned) Lotto Dstny, +1:04
9. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) Ceratizit-WNT, at identical time
10. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +1:07
