Juliette Labous fought hard deep into the final of what turned out to be a tough, classics-style stage of the Tour de France Femmes today in difficult weather conditions and a parcours that included the Cote de la Redoute and La Roche-aux-Faucons in the final 40 kilometres.
Starting the day in green, winner of two of the first three stages Charlotte Kool won the sprint from the peloton to take second place at the day’s intermediate sprint behind one lone leader. This was enough for her to maintain her lead in the classification heading into day five.
The latter part of the stage’s profile presented the difficulties with multiple climbs to tackle, but it wasn’t until La Roche-aux-Faucons where the winning move came. Labous just missed the split as four riders went clear, ending up as three which stayed away. Labous led the chase in a select group behind to keep the gap down, eventually crossing the line just outside the top 10.
After the stage, Labous commented: “The girls did a good job early on following the attacks then Charlotte won the intermediate sprint to keep the green jersey which was really nice. When we were heading to the first real climb we got stopped by the train and I didn’t feel so good then but the girls did great to position me ahead of La Redoute. And from there on I felt better. Pfeiffer then positioned me well for Roche-aux-Faucons, but I was lacking a little bit just before the top and was a bit disappointed to not be able to follow. But they are the best punchers in the world, so I have nothing to be ashamed of there. The only frustrating thing was that the cooperation in my group was not good.
“I did my best and the time lost is what it is. Others lost time too so I can look at the positives where possible. I’m looking forward to racing in France tomorrow and keeping up the motivation as I felt good so we can build confidence from this.”
