La Vuelta Femenina: Kristen Faulkner wins stage 4; echelons see Gaia Realini and Liane Lippert losing significant time

Stage 4 of La Vuelta Femenina was an exciting day of racing. Almost completely flat, but the strong winds created big splits very early on that were meaningful for the overall classification. A small group rode to the finish, and Kristen Fualkner won with a late attack from it.

The strong winds caused tension early on and despite a few attacks, there was never a breakaway on the day. The pace was very high from the start and with just over 110 kilometers to go, strong crosswinds led to echelons in the peloton that proved very important.

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The leading peloton had 18 riders including Marianne Vos, reace leader Blanka Kata Vas, Demi Vollering, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, and Alison Jackson. The peloton lost quite a bit of time before organizing itself; with riders such as Gaia Realini and Liane Lippert losing time.

Throughout the day, these two groups were in almost perfect balance between each other, but the front group was to fight for the stage win. Inside the final 10 kilometers however, with a small peloton, a few riders began to attack including Vollering, Longo Borghini and Reusser.

Kristen Faulkner attacked with 5 kilometers to go and got a gap that quickly grew as the group lost it's organization. The American rider took a very strong win by herself. Georgia Baker sprinted to second place whilst Marianne Vos was third on the day and is the new race leader.

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