With a solo ride, the Swiss cyclist Marlen Reusser won the fourth stage of the women’s Tour de France.
The 30-year-old launched the decisive attack with 23 kilometers to go and won with a lead of 1:24 minutes over French Évita Muzic.
Falls overshadow Tour
After several serious falls on the previous days, there were again accidents. For example, the Spanish champion Margarita Victoria Garcia Canellas was hit on the rear wheel by her team’s team car about 13 kilometers from the finish line and suffered a serious fall. The 38-year-old was able to finish the stage with abrasions, but fell back from sixth to eleventh place overall. During the tour, Germany’s track cycling team world champion Laura üßmilch broke two vertebrae in a heavy mass fall.
Marianne Vos from the Netherlands prevailed in the peloton’s sprint after 127 kilometers from Troyes to Bar-sur-Aube and finished fifth. The three-time road world champion and Olympic champion from 2012 successfully defended the yellow jersey of the overall leaders. Vos is 16 seconds ahead of Italy’s Silvia Persico and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma. The German champion Liane Lippert was twelfth of the day and ranked 13th overall, 2:55 minutes behind Vos.
The fifth stage on Thursday leads over a largely flat 176 kilometers from Bar-le-Duc to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges.