Vos extends lead in Women's Tour with stage 4 win

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Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) claimed her second consecutive stage victory in the Women's Tour, beating Italian Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle Honda) and Lucy Garner (Great Britain) in the sprint. Vos extended her lead in the overall classification with the time bonuses, and now leads Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) by 19 seconds, with previous race leader Rosella Ratto (Faren) in third three more seconds back.

The sun came out for the women's peloton for their penultimate 87.8km stage from Cheshunt to Welwyn Garden City, and as has been the case every stage the bunch were active from the gun.

This time, however, a lone rider, Ciara Horne (Great Britain) was able to gain a handful of seconds over the peloton, taking the first mountain prime at Port Hill. Sharon Laws (UnitedHealthcare) added to her advantage in the classification by taking second place from the field over rival Jolanda Neff of Switzerland before Horne was caught.

French champion Elise Delzenne counter-attacked as Horne was brought back, but could not go clear. This was not the case for Emma Pooley (Lotto Belisol), who went clear just after Delzenne was caught. The former world time trial champion gained 20 seconds on the bunch, sparking a furious chase behind.

Five riders set off in pursuit of Pooley and succeeded on joining her Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabo-Liv), Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS), Chantal Blaak (Specialized-lululemon), Janel Holcomb (Optum) and Kasia Pawlowska (Boels-Dolmans) bridged up to Pooley, gaining nearly a minute on the peloton.

However, with Van Vleuten sitting on in defense of her teammate's race lead, the cooperation disintegrated up front. As Astana and Wiggle-Honda led the chase behind, the gap steadily fell, and by the final bonus sprint with 8.5km to go the bunch was back together. Vos claimed the bonus seconds ahead of Johansson and Armitstead in Codicote.

A brief respite came with 2.5km to go as the contenders for the polka dot jersey fought out the final mountain prime, this time Neff got the better of Laws, before Rabo-Liv took control for the bunch sprint.

Armitstead suffered an ill-timed puncture with 2km to go and was unable to rejoin the head of affairs before the sprint, losing an opportunity to give the British fans a home stage win.

Vos won the sprint handily over Bronzini, with former junior world champion Lucy Garner in third.

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