'Not bothered' - Why 'no one wanted to race' on day that provided 'fantastic entertainment' at Tour de France Femmes

Stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes was won by Marlen Reusser (SD Worx) as Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo–Visma) retained her GC advantage. It had been billed as a blockbuster event with the presence of unpaved roads along the tough route to Bar-sur-Aube expected to blow the general classification wide open. Ad/> However, widespread conservatism from the GC teams in effect neutralised the stage, as argued by Katy Madgwick, and the lack of gumption was debated on The Breakaway by Orla Chennaoui, Adam Blythe, Dani Christmas and Dani Rowe.

/> Tour de France Femmes'Not bothered' — Why 'no one wanted to race' on Stage 4AN HOUR AGO Blythe could not understand why a stage that had promised so much had been engulfed in negativity from a general classification perspective. “The GC riders were just so negative,” began Blythe. “No one wanted to race.

It was just stop-start, stop-start. “I think everyone was just so stressed about the gravel sections that when they got off them, it was like, ‘right we've done that now, so we're not bothered about [racing]’. “I mean, [Annemiek] Van Vleuten had a puncture, and was on a spare bike, [Elisa] Longo Borghini was on [Elisa] Balsamo’s bike, but no one took the opportunity to put them even further out the back.