Dutch champion goes solo in final of attritional Limburg stage
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Riejanne Markus of Jumbo-Visma wins stage 4 from late attack with 6.3km to go(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Stage 4 winner Riejanne Markus of Jumbo-Visma finishes 14 seconds ahead of the charging chasers(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Race leader Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM finishes second on stage 4(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Riejanne Markus of Jumbo-Visma attacks with 6.3km to go(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Anna Henderson of Jumbo-Visma and Julie Van De Velde of Plantur-Pura compete in the breakaway(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Anna Henderson of Jumbo-Visma and Julie Van De Velde of Plantur-Pura were reeled back by peloton with 8km to go(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
The peloton heads back to Landgraaf for the finish(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Mischa Bredewold of Parkhotel Valkenburg was part of the earlier break with Julie Van De Velde of Plantur-Pura and Anna Henderson Jumbo-Visma on stage 4(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Amanda Spratt of Team BikeExchange-Jayco (center) rides at front of peloton(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
A general view of the peloton riding 135.2km on stage 4 from Landgraaf and back to Landgraaf (Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Kirstie Van Haaften of Parkhotel Valkenburg early in the breakaway(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Race leader Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM in the Yellow jersey prior to stage 4 start(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) in Yellow leader's jersey and Lonneke Uneken (Team SD Worx ) in the White Best Young Rider Jersey at the start in Landgraaf(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM pushes the pace(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Malle Grossetete of Team FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope in the Polka Dot Mountain Jersey crosses the finish line 3:05 behind stage winner(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Kirstie Van Haaften of Team Parkhotel Valkenburg celebrates at the podium in receiving the red most combative rider jersey(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Stage 4 winner Riejanne Markus of Jumbo-Visma celebrates as stage winner(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) retains the Yellow leader's jersey(Image credit: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images)
Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma) won stage 4 of the Simac Ladies Tour. The Dutch champion attacked in the final kilometres of an attritional stage through the hills of Southern Limburg and got away.
Markus soloed to the finish to win the stage a few seconds ahead of yellow jersey Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) who beat Karlijn Swinkels (Team Jumbo-Visma) in the sprint for second place.
“I am super happy. We wanted to do things differently today, it’s very hard to beat Wiebes in a sprint, and we did everything to make it a hard race," Markus said. "Anna [Henderson] was in the break for a long time, that was a great situation for us. I actually enjoyed it, we really raced with the team today. It was a really hard race, three times up the Cauberg and the other climbs, but very nice,”
Wiebes keeps the overall lead going into the stage 5 individual time trial, and is now 20 seconds ahead of Swinkels in the GC with Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo) third at 27 seconds.
The Dutch road champion timed her attack well for the stage victory, countering from the back of the group with 6.3km to go, after several other moves had been brought back.
“Often, I go too early, so I reminded myself I had to keep calm. It was a good moment to attack, and in the end it succeeded. I knew I was gone, but I didn’t know that they wouldn’t come back," Markus said, who turned 28 on Thursday.
"It was into a headwind, but I didn’t want to look back, just pedal, and either they would come back or not. The legs don’t feel good anymore, but they don’t feel good for anyone at this time in the race, so it will be okay,” finished Markus with an eye on Saturday’s time trial.
How it unfolded
Stage 4 was the queen stage of the race, starting in Landgraaf before doing three laps of a circuit that included the climbs of the Sibbergrubbe, Cauberg, Gulperberg, Kruisberg and Eyserweg before returning to Landgraaf for the finish after 135.2 km. Two ascents each of the Cauberg and Gulperberg gave out QOM points.
Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo) and Kirstie van Haaften (Parkhotel Valkenburg) attacked early on, but as Hosking could not follow Van Haaften on the Cauberg, the 23-year-old Dutchwoman was alone in front of the race.
Van Haaften had an advantage of up to 1:15 minutes on the peloton and won the first three QOM sprints to take the lead in the QOM classification. Anna Henderson (Team Jumbo-Visma) bridged to her on the second time up the Cauberg, and the two riders continued together.
The peloton split on the steep Kruisberg, and Julie Van de Velde (Plantur-Pura) went on a solo chase of the break, making it to the front duo after a few kilometres.
On the final lap, Van Haaften lost contact on Cauberg while Wiebes led the peloton up the climb 26 seconds behind. Mischa Bredewold (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Nina Kessler (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), and Tamara Dronova (Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad) attacked from the peloton on the plateau after the climb and got away.
With 23km to go, Van de Velde and Henderson were 31 seconds ahead of the three chasers and 1:14 minutes ahead of the peloton of about 50 riders, putting Henderson into the virtual GC lead.
This gap came down quickly in the run-in to the Gulperberg, the chase group was reeled in, and Henderson and Van de Velde were only 19 seconds ahead after the climb while the peloton had shrunk to some 25 riders.
On the Eyserweg climb, there were attacks from Amanda Spratt (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) and Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM), and eventually these two riders jumped across to the front together with Dronova and Julie De Wilde (Plantur-Pura).
The gap was very small, though, and everything came back together 6.5km from the finish.
Ilaria Sanguineti (Valcar-Travel & Service), Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Team SD Worx) and Bredewold attacked to pre-empt a sprint, and Wiebes had to bring back all those moves.
With about 4 km to go, Markus put in her attack, quickly getting a sizeable gap as the rest of the group could not or would not close her down, and the Dutch champion soloed to victory.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
