Demi Vollering finishes second in Rodez, Lotte Kopecky retains yellow jersey

Demi Vollering finishes second in Rodez, Lotte Kopecky retains yellow jersey

"Gained a little bit of time"

26/07/2023

Demi Vollering finished second in the streets of Rodez behind Yara Kastelijn, the only rider who managed to stay in front from the early breakaway. In the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes to Rodez, the riders for the general classification bombarded each other, but big differences were not realised. An industrious Lotte Kopecky retained her yellow jersey, Demi Vollering sneaked eight seconds away from her rivals via a firm final sprint. "All in all, this is a successful day for Team SD Worx," Lotte Kopecky concluded.

In the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes, a large group was given a lot of leeway by the peloton. At around 40 kilometres from the end, the lead was still around 10 minutes. Team SD Worx had Christine Majerus at the front. "She is of course super strong, but the lead was really big at one point. So Elena Cecchini and Lorena Wiebes led the chase on behalf of our team at the head of the peloton. Later, Marlen Reusser and Mischa Bredewold also did a lot of work, so the lead dwindled," Demi Vollering told us.

Lotte Kopecky proved to be an important teammate for Vollering. She attacked several times, then rode alone in front of the peloton for a while in pursuit of the big group. Kopecky: "I tried to help Demi by getting ahead. Our main goal remains to win the Tour de France Femmes with Demi. I had hoped she could jump to me and that way we could put pressure on the opposition." 

Demi Vollering: "I didn't really get away from the chasing group. Such a long and tough stage chops it up and takes away some of the explosiveness. I was happy with how Lotte got over that climb. Mentally it helps to have such a strong teammate in the group of favourites. In the end, we caught several riders from the early breakaway. The final climb to the finish in Rodez was super chaotic. I doubted I had won, but apparently someone was still in front of me. I still gained eight seconds on my main competitors in the general classification. Of course I had hoped for more, but this is a great day for our team."

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