Women's Tour 2022: Grace Brown wins Stage 4 in Wales, Lorena Wiebes relinquishes race lead

ByNick Christian

Updated 09/06/2022 at 20:23 GMT

The two toughest climbs of the week made the difference on Stage 4 at the Women's Tour as the peloton's puncheurs took advantage and took a breakaway to the line. Grace Brown of FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine emerged victorious from a front group of 10 that was reduced to three in the finale, sprinting to victory over Kasia Niewiadoma and Elisa Longo Borghini.

Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine) claimed a first road victory of the season at the Women’s Tour on Stage 4, beating Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon–SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) into second and third in a very select sprint finish.

Having been a key member of a medium-sized group that successfully snapped the elastic from the peloton, and then the instigator of a move that reduced that break to ribbons, the Australian rider played the finale to perfection.

Brown allowed Longo Borghini to lead out, locking onto her wheel and using the Italian to catapult her to the line. With the victory came the overall race lead, leaping up 26 places in the standings, as the efforts of Lorena Wiebes’ DSM team-mates proved insufficient to bring the race back.

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The first of two special stages in Wales began with the more manageable of them, but still one the profile of which would present some serious challenges .

The question of the day was whether Wiebes had enough in the tank - her own or that of her team - to overcome the most challenging climbs of the race so far and retain the yellow leader’s jersey.

The answer would come in the second half of the stage and it would be the sleep slopes of Hirnant Bank that would enable a split; those of the similarly challenging Bryn-y-Fedwen would prove decisive in preventing the race from coming back together.

A four-rider break of Elena Cecchni (SD Worx), Mikayla Harvey (Canyon–SRAM), Maaike Boogaard (UAE Team ADQ) and Teuntje Beekhuis (Jumbo-Visma) made a good fist of things in the early stages. The quartet shared the points and seconds between them in the intermediate sprints at Chirk and Llangedwyn.

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Grace Brown

Image credit: Getty Images

Behind, the peloton had their sights on the first classified climb. As they had done in Gloucestershire, Canyon-SRAM drilled it from the bottom of the climb, allowing a small then significant split to form, with team leader Niewiadoma among a 10-strong group of experienced name riders on the right side of it.

Wiebes’ DSM team-mates worked hard to bring things back together. Even after the work they had put in on the climbs she still had four colleagues at her disposal. On the run-in to Welshpool it was a case of hares versus hounds.

As the hills rolled and the weather showers to sunshine as quickly, so the time from bunch to break yo-yoed between as much as 40 seconds to as little as 20 in the final fifth of the stage.

Movistar lent DSM the services of Alicia Gonzales and Sheyla Gutierrez to aid the chase. As the kilometres counted down towards 10, the breakers were barely a dozen seconds up the road - in sight on some of the longer stretches of Welsh tarmac.

While the front group were having to decide how to play the finale, behind the bunch knew what they had to do. Unfortunately their matches were being burnt out, as the effort that Wiebes’ equipiers’ had put in began to take its toll. With team-mate Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma) in the front group, Coryn Labecki marshalled the front of the race without ever taking a turn.

With 5km remaining an attack from Brown began the break-up of the breakaway. She was soon followed by Niewiadoma and Longho-Borghini as they sought to eliminate fast finishers and improve their odds by the line.

At the flamme rouge it looked to be between those three and they began to play cat and mouse. Longo Borghini launched her sprint first, but couldn’t drop Brown who played it patiently in the slipstream, coming round to take the victory. Niewiadoma pipped the Italian to second place, gaining precious GC seconds ahead of the Black Mountain stage on Friday.

Wiebes led the bunch in behind, limiting her losses but not by enough to retain the overall lead.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION TOP TEN

1. Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine) 12:39:11
2. Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) +0:04s
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek Segafredo) +0:06s
4. Alexandra Manley (BikeExchange Jayco) +0:13s
5. Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) +0:17s
6. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team SD Worx) +0:18s
7. Kristen Faulkner (BikeExchange Jayco) +0:46s
8. Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) +1:06s
9. Veronica Ewers (EF Education - Tibco - SVB) +1:18s
10. Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) +1:19s

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