Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) won the 144-kilometre Stage 4 of the Women's Tour from an elite selection formed on the roads of Wales, beating Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) after an exciting conclusion to the race where Brown attacked from a front group of ten that had formed midway through the race.
The Australian was part of a move that formed with 78 kilometres left to race, a strong group of ten contained most of the pre-race favourites for the overall victory going clear on the short, sharp climb of Hirnant Pass.
A group of six crested the climb together: Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma, her teammate Elise Chabbey, Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team SD Worx), and Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) had a small gap at the top.
Brown, Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo), Alexandra Manly (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), and Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma) joined them on the lap around Lake Vyrnwy, establishing the eventual winning move.
The gap to the lead riders fluctuated with a determined chase behind from Team DSM, who were attempting to get dual stage-winner Lorena Wiebes back in contention for the stage win and to retain her overall lead.
The attackers mostly shared the work at the head of the race, but it was the Team BikeExchange-Jayco pair of Kristen Faulkner and Alex Manly doing the longest turns, with Manly, in particular, looking strong in her efforts.
Team DSM ran out chasers in the final kilometres, eventually finishing a minute and 16 seconds down despite being just under 20 seconds behind with the leaders in sight at points during the pursuit.
In the end, the superior number and quality of contributors in the break told and broke the strength of DSM, meaning that the attackers would fight it out for the win.
Brown started the decisive move, attacking with five kilometres to go, surging out to a solo lead.
Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma bridged to Brown after a tough chase where the Australian refused to surrender even when the chasers were a few bike lengths off her rear wheel. Brown continued to pull the strongest turns of pace and while Longo Borghini opened the sprint, Brown fought back and powered past the Italian champion to win the stage. Niewiadoma finished second with Longo Borghini third.
The 29-year-old Australian moved into the race lead with the win with a lead of four seconds over Niewiadoma and six seconds over Longo Borghini.
" It's my first win this year, I've felt it coming for a while, so yeah, it's a relief,” said Brown. “It's also great for the team. It's my first win under the colors of the team, after the Australian time trial championships in January, so it's really good!
“I knew that, on paper, I had a better sprint than the other two, but coming into the final 500 metres, 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.”
The Women’s Tour continues with Stage 5, the queen stage of the 2022 race, finishing atop Black Mountain in Wales. Watch from 8.30pm AEST on SBS On Demand.
