Routine was setting in as Lotte Kopecky entered the press room for her yellow jersey press conference, the fourth in as many days. Still, during stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes from Cahors to Rodez it had looked as if the Belgian rider might lose her leader’s jersey as a break of 14 was over ten minutes ahead, putting Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health) into the virtual race lead.
However, the hilly second part of the stage, the longest in Women’s WorldTour history, was still to come, and Kopecky’s SD Worx teammates started chasing. Still when Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) attacked from the breakaway, ultimately winning the stage solo, for a while the 25-year-old Dutchwoman also became the virtual GC leader.
Eventually, though, the peloton reduced the gap to the riders at the front of the field and when Kopecky finished 14th, 1:27 minutes behind the race winner, she had secured the yellow jersey for another day at lease and probably more given that stage 5 and 6 are likely to end in a sprint.
Kopecky’s teammate Demi Vollering charged to second on the uphill finish into Rodez and half-raised her arms on the line, not knowing whether there was someone ahead or not. Kopecky confirmed that the situation in the final wasn’t always clear to the riders.
“At one point it was pretty confusing because I didn't really know what the time gap was. On the last classified climb, we managed to bridge to a few riders. I didn't know how many were left in front, but at three kilometres to go, I heard on the radio that Yara was in front with one minute thirty, then I knew that we wouldn't ride for the win,” she said.
On the second-category climb of the Côte de Moyrazès with just under 20 km to go Kastelijn had launched her attack from the break and Kopecky also accelerated away from the peloton on the same ascent a few minutes later. Kastelijn was still the virtual leader at this point, but Kopecky's move wasn’t about trying to defend her jersey. Instead, she wanted to set up a stepping stone for a move by Vollering.
“I was meaning to help Demi try to go on the attack, hoping that she could get rid of the other riders and that I could help her towards the finish,” Kopecky explained.
As it was, Vollering’s move was followed by Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) but the SD Worx rider managed to shake off her rival on the final climb, though things came back together on the run-in to the finish.
The length of the stage, at over 180 km when including the neutral start, was another talking point. Kopecky said that she didn’t mind the inclusion of long days like this but wouldn’t want races to overdo it.
“I like to have long races like this. It doesn’t need to be every race, but it’s okay to have it once in a stage race,” Kopecky finished before taking her fourth yellow jersey lion and going back to the team bus to get ready for another day in the maillot jaune.
