World time trial champion Reusser powers to yellow and Vollering consolidates her GC position, but defending champion Ferrand-Prévot suffers against the clock.
Marlen Reusser celebrates the stage win and the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. (Photo: NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)
Updated August 4, 2026 12:59PM
Marlen Reusser (Movistar) powered to victory and into the yellow jersey in Tuesday’s stage 4 time trial at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as the 21km test against the clock reshuffled the overall standings.
The race’s lone time trial promised to shake up the GC and delivered several surprises.
Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) — racing her first major individual time trial since her road racing comeback — struggled on the power-heavy course and saw her yellow jersey hopes unravel after conceding more than two minutes.
Reigning world champion Reusser scorched the course in 27:30 at an average speed of 45.793kph to win the stage, but it was closer than expected when she held off the Dutch national champion Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) by only four seconds.
The Swiss rider surged into yellow, with 2023 winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) climbing to second overall at 14 seconds after finishing third on the stage.
“I am very happy,” Reusser said. “I gave everything I had to win today. I was thinking about this stage since the beginning of the season. This is the first Tour de France that I have really targeted and that I am here as a leader. This was our ‘Project Dijon’ to have yellow today.”
Double Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner posted an impressive ride with sixth at 53 seconds back; her EF Education-Oatly teammate Cédrine Kerbaol climbed into third overall.
Overnight leader Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) suffered after her record-distance solo breakaway Monday and saw her two-minute-plus lead evaporate. Haugset’s fairy-tale run ended as the Norwegian finished 65th and tumbled from yellow to fourth overall.
Time trial sets first major GC differences
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot suffered in her first major time trial since her road comeback. (Photo: NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)
The yellow jersey contenders were either trying to press their advantage or limit their losses on a specialist course that featured one moderate climb in the heart of Burgundy wine country.
Vollering delivered the strongest ride among the top favorites, conceding just 18 seconds to Reusser to cement her position in second overall.
The stage caused the first important separation between the favorites, with Reusser and Vollering emerging at the top, with the gaps stretching to the one-minute mark on the major challengers behind them.
Ferrand-Prévot — who won last year’s Tour on a route without an individual time trial — slipped to 14th after giving up 2:13 to Reusser and now faces an uphill battle to claw her way back into yellow jersey contention.
Other climbers also lost time, although many of the marquee names finished in a tight cluster.
The 2024 winner Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram) stopped the clock at 1:08 slower. Rising Spanish star Paula Blasi and her inside-the-bus duel with UAE l’Imad teammate Elisa Longo-Borghini will only heat up after the pair finished just one second apart.
Behind Reusser and Vollering, the GC remains wide open. Niewiadoma sits sixth at 1:09, while Anna van der Breggen slipped to eighth at 1:17 as the race heads toward the mountains this weekend.
What’s next: Another hilly thriller
The fifth Tour de France Femmes continues Wednesday with the 140km stage 5 from Mâcon to Belleville-en-Beaujolais.
It’s a brutal profile with no less than eight rated climbs, including the Cat. 2 Mont Brouilly (2.9km à 7.6%) with just over 100km to go.
That should be too much for the pure sprinters and set up a brawl between the GC favorites and stage-hunters.
Tour de France Femmes Stage 4 results
