Virtual Tour de France: April Tacey wins women's stage 4

April Tacey (Drops) secured her second stage victory at the Virtual Tour de France on Sunday. The British rider, who won the opening stage, sprinted to the stage 4 win ahead of Anna Henderson (Sunweb) and Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-SVB).

"It feels amazing to win another stage," Tacey said. "That race was really, really hard. Coming into the last hill, I about nearly lost it, and then going down I caught on and I just can't believe I won the sprint."

TIBCO-SVB continue to lead the overall classification with 277 points. Drops are sitting in second place with 219 points and Canyon-SRAM are in third with 206.

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The fourth stage of the Virtual Tour de France was held on the Zwift’s newly released France world’s R.G.V Casse-Pattes route. The 45.8km (two laps) race was a climbing affair and riders’ avatars were permitted to used their climbing bikes. The route included two intermediate sprints (12km and 35km) and four Queen of the Mountains (14km, 20km, 37km and 43km) before the finish.

The event is based on a points system whereby the first rider to cross the finish line scores 50 points, and points are awarded to the top 25 riders. 10 points are also available to the winner of each intermediate sprint and mountain ascent. The team that accumulates the most points at the finish line takes the overall lead in the respective classifications. 

The racing started last weekend with stage 1’s Watopia Hilly race won by Tacey, and the team took the overall classification lead. TIBCO-SVB overtook that lead when Lauren Stephens won stage 2’s Watopia Mountain race. The American outfit maintained their first place in the overall ranking after stage 3’s R.G.V race on Saturday even though Tanja Erath (Canyon-SRAM) won the stage.

Joss Lowden (Drops) picked up the full points on the QOM and over the top the group included Romy Kasper (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo), Liane Lippert and Anna Henderson (Sunweb), Leah Dixon, Sarah Gigante and Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-SVB), April Tacey (Drops), Shara Gillow (FDJ), Lisa Brennauer (WNT), Eugenia Bujak and Urska Zigart (Ale BTC Ljubljana), and Zwift Academy winner Jessica Pratt (Canyon-SRAM). 

Time trial world Chloe Dygert (Twenty20) was distanced over the climb but remained in a chase group that closely followed the leaders until regaining contact on the flatter sections heading into the second lap. She also had two teammates in the front group with Lea Davison and Courtney Nelson.

A second group on the road included riders Coryn Rivera (Sunweb) but they were just over a minute behind the lead group. This group were continued riding because there were still points available, to put toward the team rankings, on the finish line.

The leaders reached the foot of the Petit QOM with roughly 6km to go and the first commitment came from Gigante but she was followed by her teammates, Dixon and Stephens, along with Tacey and Lowden. Lowden used a PowerUp to pick up the full points over the top. 

Dygert led a chase group on the first section of the descent and closed the two-second gap, creating a group of 11 riders in the final kilometre.

Dixon used an aero PowerUp with 200 metres to go and opened the sprint first but she was passed at the line by Tacey, who took the stage victory.

The Virtual Tour de France concludes next weekend with a stage on Mont Ventoux on Saturday followed by the finale on the Champs Elysees on Sunday.