It was fourth time lucky Wednesday for Lotte Kopecky at La Vuelta Femenina.<\/p>\n
The Belgian powerhouse unleashed a huge sprint for a victory that had been long-time coming after three near misses in three days.<\/p>\n
Kopecky\u2019s superdomestique Anna van der Breggen placed second on Wednesday\u2019s stage 4. She played MVP in the final kilometer by sitting on the Belgian\u2019s wheel to disrupt the rival sprinters.<\/p>\n
Kopecky, Van der Breggen, and the SD Worx massive were in raptures at the line after fortune finally turned their way at the Spanish tour.<\/p>\n
Kopecky had finished second on stage 1, was relegated after late mechanical chaos on stage 2, and was denied by C\u00e9drine Kerbaol\u2019s surprise attack on stage 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo times second, one time not so great,\u201d Kopecky said at the finish, visibly relieved. \u201cWe really believed as a team we could win, but we had to wait for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It couldn\u2019t have been much better on Wednesday for the team that once dominated the Women\u2019s WorldTour but has been threatened by new superteams.<\/p>\n
SD Worx-Protime fully committed to Kopecky through the final and were rewarded with a victory that put their leader into the red jersey.<\/p>\n
Overnight GC leader Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) finished fifth at the line and on the same time as Kopecky, but lost out on bonuses.<\/p>\n
She drops to second overall, six seconds back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last three days we were not so lucky,\u201d Van der Breggen said at the finish. \u201cEvery time almost, but something went wrong. Today the motivation was really high.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it\u2019s not working, it gets worse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Patience pays off for SD Worx-Protime<\/h2>\nVan der Breggen and Kopecky celebrate a hard-earned win.<\/span> (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
SD Worx-Protime left it late to reel in the final breakaway riders on Wednesday, but it worked out perfect.<\/p>\n
Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek) and Marta Jaskulksa (Human Powered Health) were hoovered up at little more than 2km to go, leaving SD Worx only a few opportunistic attacks to control before the final gallop.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThis was the easiest stage of the race so far, but the final was really hard,\u201d Kopecky said. \u201cAt one point, I thought we weren\u2019t going to catch the break any more.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily my teammates were on fire and could respond to the final attacks, and I just had to jump from wheel to wheel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Anna in second place as well, it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kopecky will wear her new red jersey into another sprint stage on Thursday. After that, the notorious summits of Les Praeres and Angliru loom in to view.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
La Vuelta Femenina stage 4 results<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274810619-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated May 6, 2026 10:30AM It was fourth time lucky Wednesday for Lotte Kopecky at La Vuelta Femenina. The Belgian powerhouse unleashed a huge sprint for a victory that had been long-time coming after three near misses in three days. Kopecky\u2019s superdomestique Anna van der Breggen placed second on Wednesday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1921355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1921355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1921355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1921355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1921355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kopecky](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274811439.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")