Blanka Vas outsprinted Kasia Niewiadoma to victory on stage five of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift after a huge crash caused chaos.
The SD Worx-Protime rider took the victory from the Canyon-SRAM's Pole on a day of mixed fortunes for SD Worx, as team leader and yellow jersey Demi Vollering crashed, but finished the stage.
Liane Lippert (Movistar) opened up the sprint before Niewiadoma came round her, but there was no stopping Vas once she put the power down and took her first Tour stage. Lippert finished third.
As a result of Vollering's crash, Niewiadoma took the yellow jersey. It is the first time that the 29-year-old has worn it at the Tour.
"It’s crazy. I still can’t believe it," Vas said post-race. "I don’t know what to say. I did not expect this today, because I felt so bad during the race. Lorena said to me to believe in myself, it helped a lot. I can’t believe it. My radio was not working so I didn’t know what happened at the back. Demi crashed, and we lost yellow, so that’s a shame. Now I have mixed feelings.
"I was just on Mischa’s wheel, in second position, so I did not hear anything [of the crash]. I didn’t know what happened there.
"In the final I just thought I cannot let Faulkner go, because I made the same mistake at the Olympics. I was suffering so much, but I knew if I survived the small climb maybe I could win. The Olympics gave me a lot of confidence because I was racing in the front, and I know if I have a good day I can be at the front."
"It feels very special for sure," Niewiadoma said. "I just learned about it, so it hasn’t really reached me yet. I’m happy for my team and my teammates and everyone who has put hard work into it.
"Today’s stage was very chaotic in general, they’ve all been hectic and dangerous. We knew that we had to stay in the front. The main goal was to be in the front, to avoid any sort of chaos and the crashes. I think good positioning, having teammates around, allowed us to stay in front of anything."
More to follow...
How it happened
After three days wholly in the low countries, the Tour de France Femmes was finally set to enter France on stage five. The race organisers were keen to stress Thursday’s race as one for the sprinters, the final chance of the race, but there were five classified climbs on the road to Amnéville, and the final 1.4km has ramps of up to 6%.
Elena Pirrone (Roland) was the first woman to attack, opening up a small gap, and she was joined 10km into the day by Michaela Drummond (Arkéa-B&B Hotels). Pirrone was the first to top the first climb of the day, the Côte de Hotte, but they were caught soon after.
Over the next 20km multiple attacks took place, but nothing stuck. Involved in the moves were Loes Adegeest (FDJ-Suez), Lily Williams (Human Powered Health), Olivia Baril (Movistar) and Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck).
With 100km to go, a new group emerged up the road, involving Pirrone, Amandine Fouquenet (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Wilma Aintila (Lotto Dstny), as Liv AlUla Jayco pulled in the peloton.
The day quickly turned hectic, with a large group getting away with 86km to go, involving Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime) and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar), but this move was soon extinguished.
Green jersey Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) had a difficult day, being distanced with 84km to go and finishing over 16 minutes down, but well within the time limit.
Active already on Thursday, Adegeest attacked once again with 81km to go, passing the summit of the Côte de Fermont in first place.
13km later, Julie Van De Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Fem van Empel (Visma-Lease a Bike), set off in pursuit of Adegeest. They came together with 68km left, until well within the last 5km. At times their advantage was over two minutes, but was largely a small gap.
There was a brief counterattack by Alice Towers (Canyon-SRAM) as the race approached 50km to go, but this did not last long.
Van Empel won the QOM sprint atop the Côte de Briey, ahead of Adegeest, with the former winning again on the Côte de Montois-la-Montagne. Van de Velde won the bonus intermediate sprint in Malancourt-la-Montagne, before cohesion started to come to an end in the breakaway, although the trio still had a 24-second advantage with 10km to go.
While the break swapped attacks among themselves, back in the peloton, a massive crash took place close to the front.
Among those who came down were yellow jersey Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL), queen of the mountains Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco).
While Vollering took time to remount her bike, the race continued up front.
Van Empel and Van de Velde were caught with just under 4km to go, before Adegeest was caught a kilometre later.
A lead group had formed off the front of the peloton in all the chaos, containing Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime), Kasia Niewiadoma and Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM), who had the most to gain from Vollering’s misfortune, Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT) and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar).
In the final kilometre, Niewiadoma attacked first, chased by Norsgaard. Faulkner then tried to ghost away, in a repeat of her Olympic performance. However, this time Vas was awake to the move. Lippert opened up the sprint in the tough closing metres, but Vas had enough power to come round her. Niewiadoma finished second, and took bonus seconds too, ensuring she took the yellow jersey.
Results
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2024, stage four: Bastogne > Amnéville (152.5km)
1. Blanka Vas (Hun) SD Worx-Protime, in 3:46:51
2. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM
3. Liane Lippert (Deu) Movistar
4. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF-Oatly-Cannondale, all at same time
5. Emma Norsgaard (Den) Movistar, +8s
6. Lucinda Brand (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +11s
7. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) Ceratizit-WNT, at same time
8. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +28s
9. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
10. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez
General classification after stage 5
1. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM, in 11:27:29
2. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF-Oatly-Cannondale, +19s
3. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +22s
4. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) Ceratizit-WNT, +47s
5. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +56s
6. Thalita De Jong (Ned) Lotto Dstny, +1:04
7. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +1:07
8. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +1:08
9. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +1:19
10. Liane Lippert (Deu) Movistar, +1:20
