Lotte Kopecky sharpens her aim and achieves stage and leadership in La Vuelta Femenina

The Belgian cyclist Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime) won this Wednesday the fourth stage of La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es 2026, contested between Monforte de Lemos and Antas de Ulla over 115.6 kilometers, by winning with strength in a sprint completely controlled by her team to also become the leader of the general classification thanks to the bonuses.

After being second in the first and third stages of this Women’s Tour, the Belgian sprinter, a two-time world champion who made her debut in the Spanish round, hit the key on the third stage and who, after pursuing that partial victory with zeal, ultimately achieved the double; stage plus red jersey.

Furthermore, SD Worx did a great job and their real leader for this Women’s Tour, the Dutch veteran Anna van der Breggen, was second in the stage and also received a bonus, entering behind Kopecky and ahead of the Italian Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco), third, while the ‘Top 5’ was completed by the stage winner in this Tour Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) and the previous leader, the German Franziska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ).

Although Koch was third in the intermediate sprint located less than 5 kilometers from the finish line and gained 2″, that fifth position at the finish line and Kopecky’s bonuses led to the change of leader in the provisional general classification. Now, the Belgian has the red jersey in her possession with a 6-second margin over Koch, while the French Cédrine Kerbaol is third at 12 seconds and Van der Breggen is fourth, 20 seconds behind her teammate.

The stage was marked by an early breakaway that formed practically from the beginning and ended up reduced to two cyclists, Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek) and Marta Jaskulska (Human Powered Health), protagonists for a good part of the route. Both came to have about half a minute of advantage in the final kilometers, although the control of the peloton, with Team SD Worx-Protime in command, progressively reduced the difference.

In the intermediate sprint in Monterroso, about five kilometers from the finish, Jaskulska took the maximum bonus ahead of Hanson, while Koch scratched two seconds by passing third, which allowed her to provisionally defend the lead before the final outcome.

However, the attempts to toughen the race in the decisive section, with movements by Movistar Team cyclists such as Sara Martín or Ana Vitória Magalhães, did not bear fruit due to the solidity of the Dutch block, which definitively neutralized the breakaway with just over two kilometers remaining.

Already within the last kilometer, with the peloton completely grouped, the Movistar tried to launch the sprint, but Kopecky, well positioned, started with power in the last 200 meters to clearly win and thus sign her 56th victory as a professional, in addition to becoming the new leader of the race.