Another day and another victory for Team SD Worx as Lonneke Uneken won stage 4 of the Thüringen Ladies Tour. The 23-year-old accelerated in the final uphill corner with 100 metres to go and passed Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling), who settled for second place on her 26th birthday.
Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) finished third, seven seconds later, after fading just before the final corner.
Team SD Worx duo of Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes led the charge of the chase group and rolled across the line in front of Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Team Jayco AlUla), 19 seconds back.
“Really happy, of course. I’m the third rider on the team to win a stage, it’s a dream,” Uneken said at the finish. “For me today, it was not the plan to end up in the front group and go for a sprint. When you have multiple cards to play, yeah, it makes it fun for us.”
Remaining in the race lead was Mischa Bredewold (Team SD Worx). She finished four seconds behind her teammates Kopecky and Wiebes, who now trail Bredewold by 10 seconds for a Team SD Worx control of the top three spot on GC and two days remaining to race.
How it unfolded
Stage 4 featured 135.5km around Gotha, one short lap and then a long lap that provided several uphill kickers in the final 4.7km to the line.
The first riders to separate from the peloton were Rachael Wales (ARA-Skip Capital) and Maaike Coljé (Arkéa Pro Cycling) but were back in the peloton mid-way through the stage. Coljé launched another attack with 41km to go, but was caught less than 10km later.
With 25km to go the trio of Lonneke Uneken (Team SD Worx), Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling) and Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) held a 40-second advantage over the peloton, being pulled by UAE Team ADQ.
Movement from the peloton began with 14km to as Team SD Worx massed Mischa Bredewold, Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky at the front and pushed the pace, the long leash of the breakaway beginning to get pulled back and cutting the gap in half.
Elizabeth Holden (UAE Team ADQ) struck out from the peloton with 11.5km to go, not gaining much separation but spurring the peloton to react and increase the pace yet again.
The effort of the trio continued with 2km to go, as the peloton had them in their sights, but could not make a dent into the space between to join the final sprint.
Results
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