Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 4 of the Simac Ladies Tour, winning the sprint of a 14-rider breakaway against Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal), with Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Uno-X Mobility) taking third place.
Teniel Campbell (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) had attacked with 71km to go in the 118.2km stage and was joined by Julia Borgström (AG Insurance-Soudal). 48km from the finish, a strong group of 12 riders bridged up to them, and this new front group quickly increased its advantage.
Crossing the finish line with 40km to go, they were almost two minutes ahead, and although SD Worx-Protime worked hard to close the gap, the breakaway made it to the finish with 36 seconds to spare, and Guarischi won the sprint.
Franzi Koch (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) was 31 seconds behind Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) going into the stage and is the new overall leader.
“The day was not supposed to go like this, but luckily, we were two in the breakaway, and the girls did an amazing job behind to chase as much as possible. When we were in the breakaway, the sport director decided to give us a chance. I actually hoped the girls would chase back because I’m not used to going for the victory anymore, so I was a bit nervous. I knew I was fast, I knew that there were other fast girls, but I tried to stay calm and use more head than power in the finish,” said Guarischi after her first victory in over 16 months.
“I still need to realise this. I didn’t think it was possible for me to win anymore, I’m really happy. We were in a good position in the breakaway because we did not have to work, so we could save a lot. In the final, I knew that Wollaston was fast, so I waited until she was more nervous than me, passed me, and started the sprint early, and then I could come back."
How it unfolded
For the fourth year in a row, the Gelderland town of Ede hosted a stage of the Simac Ladies Tour, consisting of three laps à 40km to the north of the town.
There were no successful attacks until Campbell made her move early on the second lap. Borgström went after her and bridged to the Trinbagonian champion after an eight-kilometre chase.
Their advantage over the peloton stayed below 30 seconds, and with 55km to go, Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) unsuccessfully tried to attack from the peloton.
Three kilometres later, an attack by Eva van Agt (Visma-Lease a Bike) led to a group of 12 riders getting away, also including Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck), Guarischi and her teammate Femke Markus, Ilse Pluimers, Ally Wollaston (both AG Insurance-Soudal), Quinty Ton (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Koch, Karlijn Swinkels, Sofia Bertizzolo (both UAE Team ADQ), Confalonieri, and Victoire Berteau (Cofidis).
With this new womanpower in the breakaway, the gap quickly went up, and starting the final lap with 40km to go, they were 1:55 minutes ahead of the peloton that had just reeled in lone chaser Carmela Cipriani (BePink-Bongioanni) and would soon bring back Audrey De Keersmaeker (Lotto-Dstny) as well.
SD Worx-Protime had Femke Gerritse, Christine Majerus, and Lonneke Uneken chasing hard in the peloton in an effort to reduce the gap, and even Lotte Kopecky joined in the work eventually. Despite this, the peloton only drew closer very slowly, with the breakaway’s advantage standing at 1:30 minutes with 25km to go and still at 1:08 minutes at the ten-kilometre mark.
When the gap was still over 50 seconds with 5km to go, it looked certain that the breakaway would make it, and Koch sacrificed any chances of a stage win in order to keep the gap as large as possible in a bid for the yellow jersey.
Bertizzolo did a final pull onto the last kilometre where Pluimers took over. Guarischi went into Wollaston’s wheel, and when the New Zealander went for a long sprint, pulling away from the rest of the break, this served as a lead-out for Guarischi who came alongside in the last turn just before the finish and threw her bike on the line to win the stage. 36 seconds later, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) led the peloton home.
Results
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