Marlen Reusser wins stage four time trial and takes first yellow jersey
Marlen Reusser won the 21km individual time trial from Gevrey-Chambertin to Dijon in stage four of the Tour de France Femmes, completing the course in 27 minutes 30 seconds and claiming the race lead. She finished the day 14 seconds ahead of Demi Vollering, who placed third in the time trial.
Reusser, 34, is the reigning time trial world champion and was one of the favourites for the sole time-trial stage of this Tour; she beat Lieke Nooijen's target by four seconds. Twenty-one-year-old Zoe Backstedt, a junior world champion in the discipline and riding her debut Tour, was 20 seconds behind Reusser and finished fourth on the stage.
Riders faced temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius in eastern France during the stage. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot lost two minutes and 14 seconds to Reusser, while Sigrid Haugset — who had started the day in yellow after Monday's solo breakaway — finished three minutes behind and dropped to fourth overall.
Stage four results were: 1. Marlen Reusser (Swi/Movistar) 27mins 30secs; 2. Lieke Nooijen (Ned/Visma-Lease a Bike) +4secs; 3. Demi Vollering (Ned/FDJ–Suez) +18secs; 4. Zoe Backstedt (GB/Canyon–SRAM) +20secs; 5. Mischa Bredewold (Ned/Boels Dolmans) +45secs; 6. Kristen Faulkener (USA/EF Education-Oatly) +54secs; 7. Cedrine Kerbaol (Fra/EF Education-Oatly) +54secs; 8. Lotte Claes (Bel/Fenix-Premier Tech) +55secs; 9. Riejanne Markus (Ned/Lidl-Trek) +1min 1sec; 10. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita/UAE Team ADQ) +1min 3secs.
The general classification after stage four shows Reusser leading on 11hrs 47mins 36secs, with Demi Vollering second at +14secs and Cedrine Kerbaol third at +54secs. The top ten further includes Sigrid Haugset fourth at +56secs and Elisa Longo Borghini fifth at +1min 3secs.
On taking yellow Reusser said: "Of course, I'm super, super happy," adding, "This was the idea that we had since a long time - my goal of the year. "I knew we were going to start in Switzerland on the Swiss national day, and we're going to have a time trial as the fourth day. "We've been talking about it for a long time, Project Dijon, for the yellow colour of the mustard! To win the time trial and maybe take yellow. It worked out. "Always it's hard and you know it's not necessarily going to happen so, that it happened like this? Super happy!"
Reusser now wears the race leader's jersey after stage four, holding a 14-second advantage over Demi Vollering in the general classification on a cumulative time of 11hrs 47mins 36secs.