(Rodez) Rodez smiled at the Dutch on Wednesday. Yara Kastelijn signed the first success of her career there by winning the 4th stage of the Women’s Tour de France which allowed her compatriot Demi Vollering, 2nd, to establish her stature as the favorite.
In Aveyron, at the end of the longest stage of this edition (177 km), Kastelijn was the only one of the fourteen breakaways of the first hour to resist the return of the strongest, led by Vollering who slightly stalled the he other big candidate for the final victory, defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten.
By taking second place just over a minute from the winner, Vollering nibbling six bonus seconds in addition to the two seconds more she granted herself at the finish on Van Vleuten, 4th in the wheel of another Dutchwoman, Anouska Koster.
If her Belgian teammate at SD Worx Lotte Kopecky kept her yellow jersey, Vollering scored points in the conquest of the precious tunic.
For the first time since the start from Clermont-Ferrand on Saturday, the two main candidates for final success discovered themselves on a very uneven course which favored movement and attacks.
While fourteen runners, including Kastelijn and the Frenchwoman Audrey Cordon-Ragot (long virtual yellow jersey) had escaped to count more than ten minutes ahead 65 kilometers from the line, the strongest whistled the end of recess in the last hour of racing.
Kopecky first, who took a dim view of his status as leader challenged by Katselijn and Cordon-Ragot.
Vollering then, finding in the three climbs of the final (including the Moyrazès coast, 2nd category 15 km from the goal) the ideal terrain to gauge himself against Van Vleuten.
If the world number one made the reigning world champion falter, she did not really win her. And the eight seconds taken from her rival probably do not represent much in terms of the program that still awaits the riders, in particular the terrible Tourmalet on Saturday and the final time trial in Pau on Sunday.
But the queen of the classics (victorious over Amstel, Liège, Stade Bianche and Flèche Wallonne in the spring) has found the assurance that she has the legs to upset Van Vleuten, already victorious in the Tours of Spain and Italy this year.
The duel promises. Just like the fight for the podium which should concern a good ten girls, including the Frenchwoman Juliette Labous who returned to the top 10 (9th) on Wednesday after her missed start during the inaugural stage last Sunday.
Yara Kastelijn is also certainly one of these contenders after her demonstration on Wednesday. The young rider (25) from the Fenix-Deceuninck team, in tears at the finish, is in 7th place overall.
“I left this morning with the idea of scoring points in the mountain classification (whose first place is occupied by the Dutchman Anouska Koster, editor’s note). Now, with these good legs, I also have a place to defend in the general classification,” she said.
Thursday, the route will be more favorable to pure sprinters from Onet-le-Château in Aveyron to Albi in Tarn, for 126 kilometers and only three listed climbs, the last 24 kilometers from the line.
