07.10.2021 World-Tour, News, Race news

ELISE KEEPS GREEN, ALICE SPRINTS TO 8TH

Alice Barnes sprinted to 8th place today and Elise Chabbey keeps the Skoda Queen of the Mountains jersey after stage four of The Women’s Tour in Southend-on-Sea.

With only one QOM classification on offer, Elise and the team set out to extend her lead in the classification and set up Alice for a sprint finish.

“At the start of today’s stage I only had one point in front of Demi (Vollering) so I really wanted to collect the maximum points today to set a comfortable advantage. The team brought me in position at the bottom of the climb and then I just went hard to the top without looking to see who else was going for it. I’m happy to go on the podium and have another day in a leader’s jersey. I hope we can keep it in the next two stages also,” said Elise.

The bunch sprint was won by Lorena Wiebes (DSM). Afterwards, Alice said “The stage was fast so not much happened during the race. I was up for the final today and was well-positioned into the final climb with 12km to go, so I didn’t waste too much energy. The final was really fast and twisty. My teammates helped me where possible but it was a constant battle of finding-losing-finding again in the last km’s. Elise came up for the final pull with 500m to go but after this, I felt like I had already made too many efforts and I didn’t have anything left for the final sprint.”

“I’m disappointed because it was a good opportunity but hopefully I will have the chance again in the next two stages.”

Tomorrow’s penultimate stage is a short 95km from Colchester to Clacton. Alice is 8th on GC, while Elise leads the QOM jersey by 6 points.

The race can be followed on Twitter with #WomensTour. There is no live broadcast but daily highlights can be found on ITV4, GCN+ and Eurosport.