Vuelta Femenina stage 4: Kristen Faulkner wins thrilling stage with late solo attack

Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) soloed to victory on stage 4 of the Vuelta Femenina, attacking the lead group with 6km to go to take the win in Zaragoza on a day that saw the race ripped up by crosswinds.

Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) sprinted to second from the chase group, who finished ten seconds down on Faulkner, just denying the American the chance to move into the race lead.

A 19-rider group contested the finale of the stage after crosswinds had split the race early on, and the leaders pushed on to stay away all the way to the finish.

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished third and with bonus seconds at the finish and the intermediate sprint, the Dutchwoman now moves into the race lead, taking over from Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) who finished fourth.

"We came to try and win some stages and we've already won two, so it's early in the Vuelta and we're already so excited and so proud of what we've accomplished so far," Faulkner said that the finish.

Four days into the race, the GC is now starting to take form, with the likes of Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL) all making it into the front whilst Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) missed the split and lost just under two minutes at the finish.

Stage 4 was billed as a ‘flat’ day – the only one of the race, in fact – but crosswinds in the first 40km ripped things apart. SD Worx-Protime took advantage in the echelons to form a strong lead group and a split that would never be closed, thanks largely to the work of Marlen Reusser on the front.

The Dutch team put five riders in the front group, who have all gained time on the GC over the riders who found themselves on the wrong side of the split. There are now 15 riders within 1:20 of each other in the overall classification, before a gap down to 16th where a number of riders, including Realini, sit 2:11 down on the race lead.

GC ripped up as SD Worx-Protime split things in the wind

With the profile mainly flat or downhill all day, it was a fast day out between Molina de Aragón and Zaragoza. As a result of the fast start, no breakaway went in the first 25km – various attacks went off the front, but none could hold off the bunch for more than a few kilometres.

After 27km, the race hit an exposed section in the countryside and the winds began to split the peloton as echelons formed. SD Worx-Protime were being particularly aggressive to try and break the race apart, placing race leader Blanka Vas and five others in the 19-rider front group and trying to push on, and quickly getting a minute gap over the next group. As well as Demi Vollering and Niamh Fisher-Black for SD Worx, Kasia Niewiadoma, Juliette Labous, Elisa Longo Borghini and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) had all made it into the front group as GC riders, whilst Marianne Vos, Alison Jackson and Georgia Baker were all possible stage winners.

Most notably, big favourite Gaia Realini was caught out, behind what remained of the peloton, trailing the SD Worx-led group by almost two minutes as the first hour of racing concluded.

Soon after, however, Realini rejoined the peloton, and this upped the impetus in that group, with Lidl-Trek and Movistar now chasing down the leaders, but it was a hard task and the gap stayed level at around a minute for a long time.

With 65km to go, it was coming down as the race hit an uncategorised climb, and it was very much a battle between SD Worx and Movistar chasing behind. Lidl-Trek did have Longo Borghini up front, but still wanted to protect the interests of Realini, who was being helped by Lizzie Deignan and Brodie Chapman.

Once the race returned to the flat, though, the gap went back out again to over a minute as the situation became desperate for the chasing group, which contained GC hopefuls like Mavi García, Sarah Gigante and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) as well as Realini.

Heading into the final 40km, the gap was up to a minute and a half as the possibility of the front group taking advantage of the situation looked more and more likely. Vas was struggling in the group, but just about holding on, and stuck with the group as they headed towards the finish.

At the intermediate sprint with 12km to go, Vos took the maximum points and bonus seconds ahead of Vas, which put her into the virtual lead by one second, but there was a lot more still to happen. With 7km to go, Vollering put in an attack just before an uncategorised climb, trying to disrupt a sprint finish, which gave way to a countermove from Kristen Faulkner and Marlen Reusser as they made it hard on the climb.

Faulkner then distanced Reusser, with a small group forming in the chase behind her: Longo Borghini, Vas, Niewiadoma and Vollering.

Heading into the final 4km, Faulkner was pushing on solo at pace, with a decent gap ahead of the four chasers, who were soon rejoined by the rest of the group, led by Riejanne Markus. With a kilometre to go, Faulkner led by just ten seconds with the chasers charging behind. However, the strong American was able to hold them off, and pushed all the way to the line to ensure she won by as much as possible. In the sprint, Baker surged to second whilst Vos just pipped Vas on the line to take third and with that confirmed her move into the red jersey.

Vos now leads the race by five seconds ahead of Vas, with Faulkner sitting in third at nine seconds. It’s further down where the real GC interest is, though, with the likes of Vollering, Niewiadoma and Labous all in the top 12, now sitting a minute and a half ahead of Realini, and more than that back to riders like García, Gigante and Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ).

Stage 5 is set to shake things up even more with the first uphill finish of the race.