Marlen Reusser has won the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes. On Wednesday (July 27th, 2022), the Swiss also showed a top performance on nasty gravel sections over 126.8 kilometers from Troyes to Bar-Sur-Aube.
21.5 kilometers before the stage finish, Reusser from the SD Worx team made a powerful attack. She quickly gained a lead of around half a minute over the peloton with yellow wearer Marianne Vos (Netherlands/Jumbo-Visma).
Main field lets Reusser grant in front
Given that Vos was 6:31 behind in the overall standings, the favorites in front had no great ambitions to close the gap to the breakaway. In the end, Reusser was able to drive relatively relaxed towards her victory of the day and even significantly extend her lead to 1:24 minutes in front of Evita Muzic (France/FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope).
Reusser was happy about her coup: “We said to each other before the stage, one of us has to attack – and then it was me. The team works together in such a way that each of us gets a chance, I’m just happy that I was able to experience that. Every stage here is tough, today’s as well as three before.”
Vos remains in yellow
At the front, everything stayed the same: Vos, who finished the stage in fifth place, is still 16 seconds ahead of the Italian Silvia Persico (Valcar-Travel&Service) and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland/Canyon//SRAM Racing).
Again numerous falls
However, the fourth stage was again overshadowed by numerous falls. The sad trend of the first few days continued seamlessly: 13 of the 144 women who started had to drop out.
Co-favorite Marta Cavalli from Italy and Laura üßmilch did not even make it to the finish line of the respective stage. Her falls had serious consequences: Cavalli suffered a traumatic brain injury, sweet milk broke two vertebrae and was taken to the hospital. Other riders, such as the Slovenian Urska Pintar, fought their way to the finish line with pain and bloody scratches, but missed the time limit.
Garcia hit by his own team vehicle
The Spanish champion Margarita Victoria Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) also had unbelievable bad luck. She was hit twelve kilometers before the finish by her own team vehicle and brought down – she only struggled to the finish in pain.