Letizia Borghesi wins stage 4 of the Eneco Tour as wind and rain play havoc on on VAM Mountain

We had already seen a fantastic race on Friday. It was Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime) who impressed with a brilliant solo breakaway in Watersley, but right behind her, Lieke Nooijen (Visma | Lease a Bike) did an excellent job for her overall standings by finishing in second place. The orange jersey wearer seemed hard to beat for the overall victory.

But if there was one place where it could still happen, it was in Drenthe. With seven ascents of the VAM Mountain, the course featured a wonderful loop that had already proven decisive for the men’s overall standings the year before. Three women, including the Dutch rider Rose Kloese (Carbonbike Giordana), tried to break away early on.

They rode well ahead of the peloton for a long time, but were caught before the final stretch. Meanwhile, the weather was extremely changeable. A few dry spells were interspersed with rain and even hail. It made the course even more challenging. But some of the riders were up for the challenge: SD Worx-Protime, in particular, was determined to put pressure on Visma | Lease a Bike, with breakaways led by Julia Kopecky and Femke Gerritse, among others.

However, it was Jeanne Korevaar (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini BePink) who opened up a gap. Hashimi had already been in the lead group earlier, which made her effort all the more impressive. The two of them reached the start of the penultimate lap, but the peloton wasn’t far behind. Although, “peloton”... there were only about twenty riders left.

And Nooijen had only Femke de Vries and Katharina Sadnik left in that group. As a result, the pressure on the orange jersey wearer grew steadily. Markus launched her first attack with 25 kilometers to go, but Nooijen was able to keep up. The two wanted to push on together, but still had to close the gap to the leaders, who also included Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) and Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco).

And it wasn't easy for her. In fact, the two breakaway riders were forced to concede defeat to the front-runners. On the penultimate climb up the VAM mountain, Rijnbeek proved to be by far the strongest climber at the front. She wasn’t too far back in the overall standings either, and had a 30-second lead over Nooijen and Markus. They were on the verge of being caught by the other favorites.

With the time bonuses factored in, things suddenly got very exciting. And she just kept pulling away: with ten kilometers to go, she had a three-quarters-minute lead—exactly her deficit in the overall standings. Panic set in among the favorites, as Visma | Lease a Bike and SD Worx-Protime suddenly had to join forces to stay in contention.

They did a good job of that. Rijnbeek fought as hard as she could, but saw her lead gradually shrink. She seemed to lose a bit of steam in the final kilometers, and with Sadnik in the lead, the gap was eventually closed. So we headed toward the VAM climb with about fifteen riders. Nooijen accelerated early on the climb, but was countered by Letizia Borghesi (AG Insurance - Soudal), who went on to win.