Ladies Thalita de Jong shows strong form in Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

The fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes was a hilly one with 1800 altitude meters. The peloton left the Netherlands and rode to Belgium. After 30 kilometers, Sara Martín (Movistar Team)  was the first to attack. On the Mont-Theux her day in the break came to an end. Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance – Soudal Team) was the next one to go solo, after the Côte des Forges. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx – Protime), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing), Puck Pieterse and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) made the jump to the front. In the end Vollering, Niewiadoma en Pieterse sprinted for the win, where Pieterse was the fastest.

On 29 seconds a group with Thalita de Jong (6th) finished. “I’m super happy. Yesterday with the time trial I was a bit disappointed, as I didn’t feel great and I had done better time trials before. In the first stage with my 20th spot in the sprint I had to come from too far so also there I felt I could have taken out more. In the Tour there are only a couple of chances, every stage is super important. But the result today is great, also yesterday I was super happy for Audrey (De Keersmaeker) who took the combativity award."

“The stage tomorrow should also suit me, the climbs are not too long and not too steep. It’s a sprint uphill, which is also ideal for me. The Grand Départ in the Netherlands was great, we enjoyed it. A great atmosphere and a lot of people, it was beautiful.”

In the general classification de Jong now sits in 8th place. “Of course there are still a lot of hard stages to come, but we take it day by day and we will do everything we can with the team. I feel really well, but you also need some luck. If I would be able to hold a top 20 in the GC it would be fantastic.”   

Picture: Brecht Steenhouwer