After two days of racing with only three dozen riders finishing in the lead peloton, the La Vuelta Femenina looks set for another tough day in the saddle on Wednesday.
Lotte Kopecky and her SD Worx-Protime team are still looking for their first stage win of the race after the Belgian finished second on stages 1 and 3 and was relegated on the day in between.
EF Education-Oatly have been the most successful team with two stage wins by Noemi Rüegg, who sadly crashed out on stage 2 while in the leader's jersey, and Cedrine Kerbaol.
Race leader Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) holds a slender two-second advantage in the general classification over Kopecky, who will undoubtedly hope to win stage 4 and don the leader's jersey.
Kerbaol, third at four seconds, put in an impressive downhill attack with over 2km to go on Tuesday, and is also within reach of the red jersey.
Stage 4, 115 kilometres from Monforte de Lemos to Antas de Ulla, has hardly a kilometre of flat riding.
There are two category 3 climbs along the route, the first, the Alto de Oural at kilometre 19.5km and then the Alto de A Vacariza at kilometre 83.6.
With the last climb topping out with 31.6km remaining, all eyes will be on the intermediate sprint with 5.2km to go, where important time bonuses are on the line.
The riders will hardly have any time to catch their breath before ramping up for the final dash to the line in Antas de Ulla.
The stage profile appears to show both the intermediate sprint and finale are uphill, which should work in Kopecky's favour.
There are only two more days before the brutal summit finishes in Les Praeres on Friday and the Angliru on Saturday, which concludes the race, so the sprinters will be keen to make the most of both stage 4 and 5.
Climbs
- Alto de Oural at 19.5km
- Alto de A Vacariza at 83.6km
- Uphill finish in Antas de Ulla
