Wiebes wins again but that’s only half the story - Takeaways from Tour de France Femmes stage 4

Stage 4 was expected to be a bunch sprint for the second day in a row. It was the last real chance for the sprinters, with only an outside chance coming on stage 5 into Guéret. But the sprinters came out to play for stage 4 and did not disappoint in what was a brutally fast and hectic race into Poitiers with Lorena Wiebes versus Marianne Vos being the major story of the day. 

This race so far has largely been about two superstar Dutch riders: Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) won stage 1 and has been in the top five of every stage and only finished outside of the top two once. Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime) has taken two stages in a row and a second place on stage two behind Mavi Garcia (Liv-AlUla-Jayco). 

Today was no different. Wiebes launched and didn’t look back as she stormed to another amazing victory. However, it wasn’t quite as dominant as the completely flat sprint was on stage three. Vos came within half a bike length of her rival on the uphill kicker.

They continued their battle in the intermediate sprint fight as well, taking third and fourth behind the breakaway. For two riders who have said they’re not really targeting green, it sure looks like they’re targeting green. Currently, Wiebes leads Vos by 40pts. Wiebes on 197pts and Vos on 157pts. 

So far in this Tour de France Femmes there has been one rider who has attacked at least once every single stage. That rider is the German national champion, Franziska Koch (Picnic-PostNL). She tried twice today to form a breakaway with the second attempt working for her. 

She was one of the first riders to launch on the stage but she was swiftly shut down. However, and after the chaotic antics that saw the peloton briefly split after a technical town centre, she launched with Brazilian rider Ana Vitória Magalhães (Movistar). 

They bridged to the lone leader, Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) who also deserves a mention for another superb effort in the break despite not making it to the QOM. Koch and Magalhães then dropped Rijnbeek. They pushed all the way and were only caught with 4km to go. Koch was also voted most combative rider on the race website. 

We already know the incredible ability of former multi-time world champion, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) but this was such an exceptional display of work as a teammate for Wiebes that it needs to be shouted about. 

Multiple riders are key in lead-outs but SD Worx-Protime were suddenly shorthanded after having to use Blanka Vas earlier than they wanted and Femke Gerritse had to put in a huge effort to get back from a mechanical that happened moments before the bunch split. 

Van der Breggen did at least three massive turns to bring the break back and keep Wiebes and her lead-out woman, Lotte Kopecky, perfectly placed and when Kopecky then had to do some work herself, the GC leader for the team came back to the front to drive it into the last 500 metres. Wiebes eventually took the stage but AvdB was a key factor in it happening. 

Coming into this race lots of people were looking towards Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) to be one of the stars of the Tour. Even just as a super-domestique for her GC leader Cédrine Kerbaol. It isn’t going that way at the moment. 

So far Faulkner has been caught in at least two crashes. One of which was rather heavy, after which she had to ride the rest of the stage alone with photographers in her face due to her wearing the American national champion jersey, alongside being Olympic champion. 

Her latest crash came on stage 4, and it was one of those that just shows if she didn’t have bad luck she’d have no luck at all at this race. It was a straight road, she was on the left side of the peloton moving up to support Kerbaol, she caught the curb and came down. Faulkner got back up but her chain was jammed. You could see the huge sigh. Earlier that day she was caught in the splits and had to bridge back to the bunch on her own. 

Hopefully, Faulkner can have a much smoother ride for the rest of the Tour de France Femmes 2025. 

One team that has really stood out to me at this race has been VolkerWessels. They don’t need to be told to have a go to get into the break, their riders are often the very first to attack. And what is even better is that it isn’t always the same rider. On stages 1 and 4 it was Rijnbeek. But, Valerie Demey, Laura Molenaar, Margot Vanpachtenbeke and Anneke Dijkstra have all been involved in some form of attack at some point. 

Not to mention their star rider, Eline Jansen. She pulled off another superb result on stage 4 to take fourth on the day. The 23-year-old’s ‘worst’ result in the race so far was 19th on stage 2, the others are all in the top ten. 

Jansen is up to 12th in GC and looks to be flying. VolkerWessels are no strangers to finding the stars of the future. They did it with Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) back in their Parkhotel Valkenburg days.