German time trial champion Judith Arndt (HTC-Columbia) won the stage 4 time trial of the Route de France around Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche. The 34-year-old former World champion completed the 24.3km course in 35’07”, 15 seconds quicker than Tatiana Antoshina (Team Valdarno) and 17 seconds quicker than Olga Zabelinskaya (Safi-Pasta Zara).
"It was a good race for me," said Arndt afterwards. "I felt good the whole way. The roads are dead here so maybe it helped that I've been training in Australia on similar roads, but overall it was a really nice course; a little bit windy and a few smaller hills.”
Race Leader Annemiek Van Vleuten (Nederland Bloeit) started the day 39 seconds ahead of Arndt; she managed to limit her losses to 38 seconds and so holds the jersey by a single second with two stages to go.
"We worked hard to get the advantage yesterday,” explained Arndt, “but towards the end of that stage I was able to save some energy and sit on because we also had Adrie [Visser] and Ina [Teutenberg] in the break and they worked to keep the gap high.”
Arndt has taken second place in both the Giro Donne and the Giro del Trentino this season, as well as third place in the Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira. With the race heading towards the mountains of the Vosges, the German has a chance to take her first stage race victory of the season; with time bonuses on the line though, she knows it won’t be easy.
"However I'm still one second behind on Annemiek and she is riding well and can sprint really well,” Arndt added. “The next two stages are harder than the previous stages, which is good. We'll have to sit down tonight and come up with a plan of how to take GC. I will try everything for sure, but it's not going to be easy."
Tomorrow’s stage will cover 110.9km between Luxeuil-les-Bains and Saint-Die-des-Vosges.
Result stage 4
1. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Columbia
2. Tatiana Antoshina (Rus) Team Valdarno @ 15s
3. Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi-Pasta Zara @ 17s
4. Marianne Vos (Ned) Nederland Bloeit @ 19s
5. Loes Gunnewijk (Ned) Nederland Bloeit @ 27s
6. Emilia Fahlin (Swe) HTC-Columbia @ 30s
7. Charlotte Becker (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam 31s
8. Shara Gillow (Aus) Australian National Team @ 34s
9. Annemiek Van Vleuten (Ned) Nederland Bloeit @ 38s
10. Elizabeth Armitstead (GBr) Cervélo TestTeam @ 56s
Standings after stage 4
1. Annemiek Van Vleuten (Ned) Nederland Bloeit
2. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Columbia @ 1s
3. Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi-Pasta Zara @ 7s
4. Loes Gunnewijk (Ned) Nederland Bloeit @ 41s
5. Charlotte Becker (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam @ 45s