Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) won the fourth stage of the LOTTO Thuringia Ladies Tour in Mühlhausen on Friday, outsprinting Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ), who took second, and Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) who took third.
GC leader Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Volker Wessels) finished with the lead group and holds the yellow jesrsey going into stage 5, four seconds ahead of stage 1 breakaway companion Ruth Winder (Human Powered Health). Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) now sits in third on the GC at 2:34″.
Lucinda Brand was happy with the win after struggling a bit in the opening stages. “When we caught up with Kasia (Niewiadoma), we knew that there was a sprint. I had a good feeling before the Tour of Thuringia, but didn’t feel as good as I had hoped during the stages. That’s why I’m very happy with the stage win. I fondly remember my tour victory in 2021. We will also go all-in in the time trial and on the final stage on Sunday and hope for further successes.”
GC leader Margot Vanpachtenbeke was pleased to have kept the yellow jersey another day and admitted it would be difficult to keep it after tomorrow’s time trial . “It’s great to have ridden this far in the yellow jersey. I’ll lose it in the time trial, that’s not my discipline.”
One of the more challenging days, stage 4 consisted of 1463 meters of altitude and four mountain classifications. Mirre Knaven (EF Education-Cannondale) was the first to attack and snag the first mountain classification, shortly afterwards, an eleven-strong group formed, with Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM), and second place on GC, Ruth Winder (Human Powered Health).
The stage was a 2 lap race and at the end of the first lap in Mühlhausen the sprint bonus was won by Bredewold. With the peloton still splintered, the lead group kept up the pace and grew their gap to race leader Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Volker Wessels) by 45 seconds. Crosswinds and challenging terrain kept the the two groups apart until around 37 kilometers to go when the yellow jersey group was finally able to make contact.
With 33 kilometers to go, the peloton was all together and the attacks began. First it was Mijntje Geurts (Netherlands National Team) who pulled away and gained 20 seconds, followed shortly afterwards by Kasia Niewiadoma who caught up with Geurts and then passed her. With 25 seconds in hand, Niewiadoma decided to go all-in and with 10km to go it looked like she might solo to victory, however, the peloton had other ideas and put their heads down and reeled in Niewiadoma with less than 5km to go.
In the final kilometers the reduced peloton went all out, with Swinkels deciding to lead out the sprint, but in the end it was Brand who came by easily to take the stage victory.
RESULTS
Stage 4: Mühlhausen > Mühlhausen (111.4km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
