Simac Ladies Tour stage 4: Lotte Kopecky wins as SD Worx go 1-2

On a stage that included both the Cauberg and the Bemelerberg, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) made it two wins in three days by conquering the Classics-style stage of the Simac Ladies Tour.

After attacking on the uphill finish to catch the lone leader Floortje Mackaij (Movistar), Kopecky held off her teammate Lorena Wiebes and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) to win stage 4.

The Queen stage of the Simac Ladies Tour started and and finished in Valkenburg and was essentially a mini Amstel Gold Race, with a finish on the famous Cauberg climb.

In the first half of the race, there were multiple attacks from the peloton trying to establish a breakaway, but none were successful, so the peloton was complete for a long time. With 63km to go, there was a large crash, which took Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma) out of the race.

With 55km to go, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), in her penultimate race day of her career, made a move and brought race leader Lotte Kopecky with her as well as Kasia Niewiadoma. They were later joined by Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich) and Lorena Wiebes and with 50km to go, Niewiadoma and Georgi made a move by themselves and established a gap over the others.

On the first ascent of the Cauberg, they were caught by the peloton and another group of six riders managed to get away. On the second time up the Cauberg, the break was again caught before another group managed to get away with 8km to go. Floortje Mackaij, Elise Uijen (dsm-firmenich), Quinty Schoens (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Elena Cecchini (SD Worx) started to work together, but the pace wasn’t enough for Mackaij who went off the front on her own.

She lead going onto the final ascent of the Cauberg but the peloton behind had gained back enough ground and this provided another launchpad for an attack by Kopecky, Niewiadoma and Wiebes. These three seemed fairly equal on the climb but eventually it was Kopecky who proved the strongest and led home an SD Worx 1-2, with Wiebes second on the stage. Kopecky maintains her GC lead going into the final stage and looks set to win the race barring any mishaps.

Head to the Simac Ladies Tour race page for the latest news and results from the race.