Simac Ladies Tour 2021 – Stage 4 [FULL STAGE] (ladies)

August 28, 2021

Simac Ladies Tour 2021 – Stage 4 – Geleen – Sweikhuizen : 148,9 km

Rebranded and with renewed vigour, the Simac Ladies Tour is back after a one-year hiatus and ready to embark on its 24th edition. As ever, the 2021 race will hinge on two individual time trials that’ll likely dictate the overall standings, while two flat and two undulating stages will give the sprinters and fast-finishing all-rounders plenty of chances to shine. With superstars Marianne Vos, Anna van de Breggen, Lizzie Deignan and Emma Norsgaard all set to line up, this year’s race promises to be one of the most hotly-contested in years. This six-day Dutch stage race has gone by many different names since its launch as the ‘Holland Ladies Tour’ in 1998, but it was perhaps best known as the ‘Boels Ladies Tour’ – a name it carried from 2013 until this year. For the 2021 edition, tech company Simac have taken over title sponsorship from Boels and – provided this year’s race is a success – will go on to sponsor the event for a further two years. This year’s race may have been rebranded, but its route remains as recognisable as ever with two individual time trials, two flat stages and two undulating stages that, on paper, look like gifts to the powerful rouleurs and explosive sprinters. Don’t discount the threat of crosswinds however, the Netherlands is renowned for its blustery weather and we’ve often seen past editions of this race decided with a lucky throw of the dice in windy conditions.

Marianne Vos took the penultimate stage of the Simac Ladies Tour in a sprint between Vos, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), and Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (SD Worx). The 34-year-old kept a cool head in the run in to the finish, which featured a short climb, as Niewiadoma attacked. Vos stayed on the Polish rider’s wheel and waited for the road to flatten slightly before launching her sprint with 150m to go to take the win.

Van den Broek-Blaak, who started the day 10 seconds behind the GC leader Marlen Reusser (Ale BTC Ljubljana) could not follow either Niewiadoma’s attacks or Vos’s sprint. However, the SD Worx rider, who is in her final full season as a pro, now sits at the top of the general classification after Reusser finished 23 seconds back.

How it unfolded

The penultimate stage of the Simac Ladies Tour began with the peloton taking stock of who had managed to escape yesterday’s crash-filled race and who would not be taking to the start for stage four.

Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM was amongst those who could not take to the startline of stage four as well as Sarah Roy of Team BikeExchange, Christine Majerus and Elena Cecchini of SD Worx, and Barbara Guarischi of Movistar. After falling on the previous stage, Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) started the day however the Danish rider pulled out after just 2km.

As well as those taken out of the race as a result of injury, the whole of team Ceratizit-WNT were unable to start stage four after a Covid-19 positive case within the team.

Stage 4 consisted of 8 hilly laps of an 18.5 km course with almost on every lap featuring a QOM or a bonus sprint. The first WOM point of the day was taken by Alison Jackson from Jeanne Korevaar, and

The first intermediate sprint was taken by Chantal van den Broek-Blaak who was looking for bonus seconds to make up the 10 second gap between her and Marlen Reusser. With over 130km to go splits were forming in the peloton on the wet and windy course and the front group consisted of around 45 riders.

With 120km to go Anouska Koster of Jumbo-Visma attacked and gained a gap on the peloton as the rain started to fall again. The 28-year-old Dutchwoman’s gap extended to over a minute and a half as Reusser was forced to defend her jersey alone, riding on the front of the bunch.

With Koster still in front, riders began to drop from the peloton as a consequence of the previous day and the weather. With 76km to go Koster’s lead extended to over two minutes as the rain continued to fall. Koster took the second and third QOM points with Alison Jackson (Liv Racing) who started the day in the climber’s jersey taking second.

With 51km to go, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig of FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope suffered a crash and although she made her way back to the bunch she eventually dropped out of the race.

The result of the fourth QOM with 45km to go mirrored the previous three with Koster stil 2:20 ahead of the bunch. Shortly after the race started to split and Koster’s gap began to come down as a group of 11 favourites split off the front of the race.

The group of 11 consisted of Van den Broek Blaak, Amy Pieters, Demi Vollering of SD Worx, Silke Smulders of Lotto Soudal Ladies, Marianne Vos of Jumbo Visma, Jeanne Korevaar and Alison Jackson of Liv racing, Eugenie Duval of FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon//SRAM Pfeiffer Georgi of Team DSM and Reusser with Koster’s gap dropping to 38 seconds.

With just over 30km to go Kasia Niewiadoma attacked the chase group forcing a gap and taking Chantal van den Broek Blaak and Marianne Vos with her. The group eventually caught Koster making Van den Broek-Blaak the virtual leader on the road after starting the stage just 10 seconds down on Marlen Reusser and took five bonus seconds during the stage. Reusser was once again forced to chase with just Marta Bastianelli to help her.

The group of three leaders maintained a gap of around 50 seconds going into the final lap. Heading into the final 10km Ale BTC Ljubljana and Team DSM were sharing the work on the front in defence of their respective GC chances however the gap to the three leaders stayed around 50 seconds.

With 1.7km to go Niewiadoma attacked with Vos on her wheel, the pair began to gap van den Broek-Blaak but the Canyon//SRAM rider’s effort didn’t stick and the group stayed together.

On the final climb to the finish it was Niewiadoma who started the attacks, but after Vos and van den Broek Blaak recovered and came back the three started to look at each other and the race came down to a sprint as the road flattened out. Vos launched her sprint with 150m to go and took her effort all the way to the line to claim the win with van den Broek Blaak in third.

At the end of the stage Reusser relinquished her leader’s jersey to van den Broek Blaak who now leads by 20 seconds ahead of Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) who sits a further 10 seconds behind. Alison Jackson retained her QOM jersey and Marianne Vos defended her lead in the points classification. Pfeiffer Georgi held onto the young rider’s jersey.

Results :
1 Marianne Vos (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team 4:15:08
2 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:00:02
3 Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Ned) Team SD Worx
4 Amy Pieters (Ned) Team SD Worx 0:00:17
5 Demi Vollering (Ned) Team SD Worx
6 Marta Bastianelli (Ita) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana
7 Alison Jackson (Can) Liv Racing
8 Pfeiffer Georgi (GBr) Team DSM 0:00:19
9 Eugénie Duval (Fra) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope
10 Ella Harris (NZl) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:00:21
11 Ellen van Dijk (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
12 Marlen Reusser (Swi) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana 0:00:23
13 Silke Smulders (Ned) Lotto Soudal Ladies 0:00:26
14 Mischa Bredewold (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:00:28
15 Jeanne Korevaar (Ned) Liv Racing 0:00:35
16 Hannah Barnes (GBr) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:00:41
17 Hanna Nilsson (Swe) Lotto Soudal Ladies 0:01:11
18 Julia Borgström (Swe) NXTG Racing 0:01:29
19 Nina Buijsman (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:01:30
20 Amber van der Hulst (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:01:42
21 Romy Kasper (Ger) Jumbo-Visma Women Team 0:01:44
22 Alexis Ryan (USA) Canyon-SRAM Racing
23 Laura Tomasi (Ita) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana
24 Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service 0:01:57
25 Janneke Ensing (Ned) Team BikeExchange 0:02:29
26 Alicia Gonzalez Blanco (Spa) Movistar Team Women 0:03:13
27 Marta Jaskulska (Pol) Liv Racing 0:04:58
28 Henrietta Colborne (GBr) GT Krush Tunap Pro Cycling
29 Quinty Ton (Ned) GT Krush Tunap Pro Cycling
30 Danique Braam (Ned) Lotto Soudal Ladies
31 Lisa Klein (Ger) Canyon-SRAM Racing
32 Valerie Demey (Bel) Liv Racing
33 Femke Markus (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg
34 Teniel Campbell (TTo) Team BikeExchange 0:05:03
35 Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team
36 Teuntje Beekhuis (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team
37 Anouska Koster (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team
38 Femke Gerritse (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:05:27
39 Susanne Andersen (Nor) Team DSM 0:05:40
40 Lonneke Uneken (Ned) Team SD Worx
41 Alice Barnes (GBr) Canyon-SRAM Racing
42 Megan Jastrab (USA) Team DSM 0:06:15
43 Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service 0:12:13
44 Maëlle Grossetete (Fra) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope 0:12:17
45 Margaux Vigie (Fra) Valcar-Travel & Service
46 Clara Copponi (Fra) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope
47 Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service
48 Evy Kuijpers (Ned) Liv Racing
49 Amalie Dideriksen (Den) Trek-Segafredo
50 Ilse Pluimers (Ned) NXTG Racing 0:15:19
51 Elise Vander Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal Ladies
52 Leah Kirchmann (Can) Team DSM
53 Maud Rijnbeek (Ned) NXTG Racing
54 Pernille Mathiesen (Den) Jumbo-Visma Women Team
55 Lauretta Hanson (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
56 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
57 Gloria Rodriguez Sanchez (Spa) Movistar Team Women 0:16:35
DNF Maaike Boogaard (Ned) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana
DNF Brodie Chapman (Aus) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope
DNF Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope
DNF Jelena Eric (Srb) Movistar Team Women
DNF Emma Norsgaard (Den) Movistar Team Women
DNF Georgia Williams (NZl) Team BikeExchange
DNF Jessica Allen (Aus) Team BikeExchange
DNF Julia Soek (Ned) Team DSM
DNF Chloe Hosking (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
DNF Alana Castrique (Bel) Lotto Soudal Ladies
DNF Jesse Vandenbulcke (Bel) Lotto Soudal Ladies
DNF Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service
DNF Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service
DNF Lieke Nooijen (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg
DNF Nienke Wasmus (Ned) GT Krush Tunap Pro Cycling
DNF 10014909890
DNF Daniek Hengeveld (Ned) GT Krush Tunap Pro Cycling
DNF Charlotte Kool (Ned) NXTG Racing
DNF Britt Knaven (Bel) NXTG Racing
DNS Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Movistar Team Women
DNS Sarah Roy (Aus) Team BikeExchange
DNS Lorena Wiebes (Ned) Team DSM
DNS Kirsten Wild (Ned) Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team
DNS Franziska Brauße (Ger) Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team
DNS Julie Leth (Den) Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team
DNS Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita) Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team
DNS Lea Lin Teutenberg (Ger) Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team
DNS Catalina Anais Soto Campos (Chi) NXTG Racing

General Classification after Stage 4 :
1 Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Ned) Team SD Worx 10:50:38
2 Marlen Reusser (Swi) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana 0:00:20
3 Ellen van Dijk (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:30
4 Demi Vollering (Ned) Team SD Worx 0:01:03
5 Marianne Vos (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team 0:01:04
6 Pfeiffer Georgi (GBr) Team DSM 0:01:23
7 Amy Pieters (Ned) Team SD Worx 0:01:42
8 Alison Jackson (Can) Liv Racing 0:02:08
9 Jeanne Korevaar (Ned) Liv Racing 0:02:30
10 Marta Bastianelli (Ita) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana 0:02:39
11 Mischa Bredewold (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:02:50
12 Silke Smulders (Ned) Lotto Soudal Ladies 0:03:31
13 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:03:46
14 Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service 0:04:06
15 Amber van der Hulst (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:04:09
16 Hanna Nilsson (Swe) Lotto Soudal Ladies 0:04:10
17 Ella Harris (NZl) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:04:17
18 Romy Kasper (Ger) Jumbo-Visma Women Team 0:04:30
19 Janneke Ensing (Ned) Team BikeExchange 0:04:56
20 Laura Tomasi (Ita) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana 0:05:02
21 Lisa Klein (Ger) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:05:42
22 Julia Borgström (Swe) NXTG Racing 0:06:26
23 Anouska Koster (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team
24 Marta Jaskulska (Pol) Liv Racing 0:07:03
25 Eugénie Duval (Fra) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope 0:07:15
26 Nina Buijsman (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:07:24
27 Femke Markus (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:07:31
28 Lonneke Uneken (Ned) Team SD Worx 0:07:47
29 Danique Braam (Ned) Lotto Soudal Ladies 0:07:56
30 Teuntje Beekhuis (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team 0:07:57
31 Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team 0:07:59
32 Hannah Barnes (GBr) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:08:05
33 Susanne Andersen (Nor) Team DSM 0:08:24
34 Quinty Ton (Ned) GT Krush Tunap Pro Cycling 0:08:50
35 Valerie Demey (Bel) Liv Racing 0:09:28
36 Teniel Campbell (TTo) Team BikeExchange 0:09:29
37 Femke Gerritse (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:09:37
38 Henrietta Colborne (GBr) GT Krush Tunap Pro Cycling 0:09:56
39 Alicia Gonzalez Blanco (Spa) Movistar Team Women 0:09:57
40 Alexis Ryan (USA) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:10:11
41 Megan Jastrab (USA) Team DSM 0:10:56
42 Alice Barnes (GBr) Canyon-SRAM Racing 0:12:42
43 Maëlle Grossetete (Fra) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope 0:14:39
44 Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service 0:15:12
45 Amalie Dideriksen (Den) Trek-Segafredo 0:15:45
46 Margaux Vigie (Fra) Valcar-Travel & Service 0:15:58
47 Clara Copponi (Fra) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope 0:16:16
48 Evy Kuijpers (Ned) Liv Racing 0:17:10
49 Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service 0:18:32
50 Pernille Mathiesen (Den) Jumbo-Visma Women Team 0:18:41
51 Ilse Pluimers (Ned) NXTG Racing 0:18:56
52 Leah Kirchmann (Can) Team DSM 0:19:11
53 Maud Rijnbeek (Ned) NXTG Racing 0:19:41
54 Elise Vander Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal Ladies 0:20:44
55 Lauretta Hanson (Aus) Trek-Segafredo 0:21:01
56 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Trek-Segafredo 0:25:10
57 Gloria Rodriguez Sanchez (Spa) Movistar Team Women 0:29:45