Cyclo-cross and mountain bike star Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) claimed her first-ever road victory on Wednesday, beating Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) in a photo-finish on stage four of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
The 22-year-old came into the finale in Liège as part of a trio with the defending champion and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM). With 300m to go, she jumped ahead of her rivals, holding off Vollering over the line.
Prior to Wednesday, Pieterse had managed top-10 finishes in seven out of the ten road races she had competed in this season. Her win marked a breakthrough on the road, a first in a career that counts multiple cyclo-cross and mountain bike World Cup victories.
"It's quite unbelievable actually," the Dutchwoman said in Liège. "The last few days, I've had super good legs. The first day I had good legs, the second day I had good legs, and today I didn't feel my legs at all. To take the win here, in a sprint against Demi, that's really a dream come true."
The pair waited in suspense after the line, an arm's length apart in a huddle of photographers, as the photo-finish imagery was examined. Vollering, a two-time winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège had been the favourite coming into the stage, which followed the exact same finale as the Monument.
"I've never been here, so I didn't know where the finish line was," Pieterse laughed. In the end, the commissaires declared she won by a tyre's width, allowing her to celebrate with her Fenix-Deceuninck teammates.
"I live for this. I worked so much up to the Olympic Games, and when you have good legs there, you have good legs here," she said.
Vollering continues to wear the yellow jersey, with a 22-second advantage over now second-placed Pieterse in the general classification. The Fenix-Deceuninck rider, first over the final two climbs on stage four, is now the Queen of the mountains.
How it happened
Stage four brought a monumental outing for the Tour de France Femmes peloton, with its closing 40km identical to that of the one-day Classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The day counted over 1,800m of elevation, a starkly hilly contrast to the race's flat opening in the Netherlands, and built up towards a trio of ascents in the finale: the Côte de la Redoute, Côte des Forges and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons.
Only one rider dared to take up the breakaway through the rain-soaked Ardennes. Sara Martín (Movistar) left the bunch with 88km to go, and with no companions joining her, pushed out a one-minute advantage on her own.
The Spaniard scooped up maximum points at the day's first intermediate sprint, placed at the midway point. There was then an intense battle in the fight for the green jersey behind her. After a small leadout from her dsm-firmenich PostNL teammates, Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) dashed ahead of Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) – as she did to win stages one and two – to tighten her grip on the points classification.
Martín's foray ended inside 50km to go, on the third-category climb of Mont-Theux. Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) won the polka-dot points over its summit, before launching a short-lived attack herself into the Liège finale.
The peloton hit speeds of almost 80km/h on the approach to the Côte de la Redoute, a climb just 1.6km long, but pitched at over 9%. Pieterse began edging away from the bunch on the steep gradient, stalked by Niewiadoma and Vollering, and thinning the peloton out on the descent into the valley.
Over the penultimate climb, the Côte des Forges, Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) kicked ahead with rain spraying from her tyres. The Belgian, winner of the mountains classification at the Giro d'Italia, quickly drew out a gap, taking 20 seconds on a wet descent that brought FDJ-Suez's Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig to the floor.
On the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, the day's final launchpad, SD Worx-Protime seized the front of the peloton in pursuit of Ghekiere. The Belgian was caught 300m from its summit, mobbed by Vollering and Niewiadoma, who towed Pauliena Rooijakkers and her Fenix-Deceuninck teammate Pieterse, the latter taking the points over the top to ensure herself the polka-dot jersey on stage five.
The quartet fought again for bonus seconds at a sprint with 11km to go; six went to Vollering, four to Niewiadoma and two to Pieterse, while Rooijakkers dropped back.
Powering towards the line, the remaining trio took 30 seconds into the final kilometre. Vollering lead into the finale wearing the yellow jersey, before Niewiadoma pounced ahead with a trademark early attack. Pieterse hung at the back of the group.
"I could [play] poker a bit," she said afterwards. "I knew Kasia would attack, and Demi would have to follow, so I just tried to keep a poker face."
Three-hundred metres from the line, Pieterse let fly. "I think I went quite early," she later said, but her timing was perfect to hold off Vollering at the line.
The Tour de France Femmes will enter France for the first time in this edition on Thursday's fifth stage, a hilly course between Bastogne in Belgium and Amnéville.
Results
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2024, stage four: Valkenburg > Liège (122.7km)
1. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, in 3:12:28
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM, both at same time
4. Kimberley (Le Court) Pienaar (Mus) AG Insurance-Soudal, +29s
5. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF-Oatly-Cannondale
6. Thalita De Jong (Ned) Lotto Dstny
7. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez
8. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Lidl-Trek
9. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) SD Worx-Protime
10. Mareille Meijering (Ned) Movistar, all at same time
General classification after stage five
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 7:40:10
2. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +22s
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM, +34s
4. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF-Oatly-Cannondale, +47s
5. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +56s
6. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +1:03
7. Kimberley (Le Court) Pienaar (Mus) AG Insurance-Soudal, at same time
8. Thalita De Jong (Ned) Lotto Dstny, +1:04
9. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) Ceratizit-WNT, at same time
10. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +1:07
