00:01Welcome to stage four of La Vuelta Femenina.
00:05Cedrine Kerboiol was up to her old tricks again yesterday,
00:08attacking late to make it two wins in three days for EF Education Oatly.
00:13The French time trial champion springing up into third place overall.
00:19It feels crazy because it's three days, we are riding so well as a team.
00:26We do run the best way, we never done.
00:28We already won with Noemi, she took the red.
00:32After that she crashed.
00:34So we went from very up to very down and I think now we are back very up.
00:40We think a lot about her.
00:42The red jersey is still on the shoulders of Franzi Koch
00:45after the German champion battled hard to keep it in yesterday's final.
00:51The last 10k were basically full gas.
00:53Every kicker someone attacked so it was a very hard final.
00:57My team is fully committed to defend the red.
01:01So you really want to finish it off for your teammates.
01:04And FDJ United Suez will have another scrap on their hands today.
01:09Koch starts just two seconds ahead of Lotta Kopecky who has had two second places
01:13and is determined to finally land that stage victory.
01:19This is another day for the classics riders and punchier sprinters with 2,000 meters of elevation gain and a
01:25couple of cap free climbs.
01:27The final is slightly uphill, not too steep, but there were two 90 degree turns in the final few hundred
01:33meters.
01:33On paper, this one looks ideal for Kopecky.
01:41The peloton visiting Lugo today, the largest province in Galicia, as four women got into the breakaway.
01:47Loretta Hansen from Lidl Trek, Marta Yaskulka of Human Powered Health, Annalise Nyssen from Lotto Antimache Ladies and Marin Alion
01:57of Mayen Monbana Maipai.
01:59Lidl Trek and Lotto both represented at the front for the second day running.
02:03And after the first climb, which saw Maiva Skibong grab a couple of Queen of the Mountains points, the gap
02:08began to grow.
02:09With around 60 kilometers remaining, the four escapees led by three minutes.
02:14Not everybody seemed to be happy with this situation though.
02:17And on a small non-categorized climb, a couple of the big teams tried to shake things up.
02:22Ninka Vinka going on the attack for SD Works Pro Time, with others quickly on the wheel.
02:27A few minutes later, Lika Nguyen had a go for Visma Lisa bike, but she too was quickly caught.
02:34Things settling down again as the gap yawned out to almost three and a half minutes.
02:40After two hours of racing, the average speed was a fairly modest 36 kilometers an hour, and the breakaway still
02:47led by around three minutes.
02:49At this point, Nyssen was the virtual race leader.
02:52The Belgian is a former 800-meter runner who got into cycling when she was recovering from injury.
02:57She turned pro this year with Lotto.
02:59They soon reached the second climb, the Alto d'Hospital.
03:03The four leaders are still working well together, but the peloton was gradually eating into their advantage.
03:10Marianne Allion, the rider for France, and that Lady Bluka is happy to accelerate away here from the group.
03:15She wants to take maximum points, so this will put her level on points with Maiva Swibong.
03:20Allion doing enough to snaffle the polka dot jersey from her compatriot Skibon, having gone first over two Cat 3
03:26climbs.
03:27She's enjoyed her racing in Spain this year, with a couple of top tens here back in February.
03:33Everybody starting to get their game faces on as they approach the final 20 kilometers, with the gap now down
03:38to under two minutes.
03:41With around 14k to go, Marta Jaskulka made her move.
03:45A big injection of pace from the pole on this slight rise, and only Loretta Hansen was able to stay
03:50with her.
03:52Nyssen and Allion fading as four became two.
03:55As they entered the last 10k, Jaskulka and Hansen still led the peloton by over a minute, so they still
04:01had a chance at victory.
04:02The intermediate sprint would come with just 5.2k remaining, but for the moment it wasn't a very organized chase.
04:14The two leaders rolling through to take six and four bonus seconds, leaving two for the peloton.
04:19And they were duty collected by the race leader, Franzi Koch, before an immediate counter-attack from the Spanish champion,
04:26Sara Martin.
04:27And now the race was on, with the peloton on an absolute charge.
04:31Movistar and SD works at driving the pace.
04:34Karina Schrempf also made a big move for Fenix Premier Tech, and it was soon game over for Jaskulka and
04:40Hansen.
04:41Kopecki found herself in a perfect position with 2k to go, surrounded by teammates.
04:46And while it was a slightly messy run-in, the Belgian was right up there before the final sprint shootout.
04:54Kopecki is poised and ready in third wheel, exactly where she needs to be.
04:59But look who is on the wheel, Lottakopecki, it is Franzi Koch.
05:02Kashi Nuviodoma is up there as well.
05:05We're getting ready for this left-hand bend.
05:07Our SD works going to be able to keep control of things.
05:09No, they aren't.
05:10Movistar team come to the front, and Lottakopecki is being isolated.
05:13Just one teammate remains with her.
05:16Lottakopecki is in second wheel in the second-to-last corner.
05:19We have one more corner to go.
05:21And still Movistar are keeping the pace high on the front.
05:23The peloton are about to make the last right-hand bend now.
05:26And now we are into the finishing straight.
05:28200 metres off the stage.
05:30Jermaine Lottakopecki in that green jersey.
05:32Launches her sprint for the finish after two second places.
05:36Could this be the day to really make it come and get that safe victory that has eluded her so
05:40far?
05:40She's there in the green jersey, sprinting at the saddle on the side of the road.
05:44Their teammate behind her.
05:45Is anybody going to challenge her?
05:46No, they aren't.
05:47Stage victory there for Lottakopecki.
05:55Fourth time's a charm for Lottakopecki.
05:58Second on stage one.
05:59Relegated on stage two.
06:00Second again on stage three.
06:02And finally first on stage four.
06:04The Belgian did win a stage of this race in 2021 when it was still known as the Madrid Challenge.
06:09But officially, this is her first success at La Vuelta Femenina.
06:13And as an added bonus, she takes the overall lead.
06:17Great to be patient because, yeah, two times a second.
06:21One time not so great.
06:22So, yeah, we really believed in it as a team to, yeah, that we were able to win.
06:28But we had to wait for it.
06:30I knew if I win the stage, I have red jerseys.
06:34So we focused on that.
06:36Kopecki leading in her teammate Anna van der Brecken for a 56th career win.
06:41With Letizia Pattenoster rounding out the stage podium.
06:43Stage two winner Shari Bossoit was fourth with Koch in fifth.
06:48That means Kopecki now leads La Vuelta by six seconds from Koch.
06:52With Kerbayol still in third.
06:53And van der Brecken climbing four places to fourth.
06:56The best of the GC riders.
06:58Koch still leads the points classification.
07:01So she'll recover the green jersey for tomorrow's fifth stage.
07:04Her advantage over Kopecki, though, has been cut to just nine points.
07:09Alion is the new queen of the mountains after her efforts today in the breakaway.
07:13Level on points with Schibon and one ahead of Ashton Moorman-Passio.
07:19And 20-year-old Laura Deschepa continues to lead the youth classification.
07:24She's level on time with Gaia Segato and Marion Bunel.
07:28Tomorrow's fifth stage should be another one for the sprinters.
07:31Although on this race, you never know.
07:33Do join us for that on Thursday.
07:34And thanks for watching.
