Grace Brown : "I was lucky enough to win" after victory in stage four of Women's Tour

Grace Brown is the new GC leader ahead of the queen stage with a summit finish on Black Mountain. Time bonifications give her a lead of four seconds over Katarzyna Niewiadoma and six seconds over Elisa Longo Borghini.

With fewer than three kilometers to go, Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma bridged to Brown, and Longo Borghini launched the sprint, but Brown came back and pushed past the Italian champion on the last 100 meters to win the stage. Niewiadoma finished second, just ahead of Longo Borghini. “The race split up on the first QOM of the day, there was a group of ten riders off the front, and I was amongst them. The gap kept growing and coming back, we didn’t know quite if we would make it to the end," she said after the stage.

"In the last five kilometers I decided to attack, at first I was solo, then Elisa Longo Borghini and Kasia Niewiadoma joined me, and we rode to the line, then had a little sprint, and I was lucky enough to win," she added. The trio built a gap which is carried until the finish, and Brown ended up the strongest from the group which propelled her into the race lead besides taking the stage win.

"I knew that, on paper, I had a better sprint than the other two, but coming into the final 500 meters, I was left on the front. That’s never the best place to be for a sprint, especially when it’s a small group. But I played it alright and was able to come around in the end to win, so I’m happy. It was a tough day out, we were on the pedals the whole time, we didn’t have any respite,” Brown concluded.