Otley’s Lizzie Deignan closes gap on Women’s Tour leaders

The 159km stage from Warwick finished in an uphill sprint as Canyon-SRAM’s Niewiadoma did just enough to hold off Liane Lippert, though the Team Sunweb rider took the overall leadership of the race on countback, with the two on the same time.

Otley rider Deignan finished third on the day, seven seconds back, and the Trek-Segafredo rider now sits three seconds down in third place overall, 
with overnight leader Lisa Brennauer slipping down to fourth place, four seconds behind Deignan.

The first ever hill-top finish in the race’s history took place in poor conditions but Niewiadoma made light of them, attacking on the first of three ascents of the climb in Burton Dassett alongside Lippert.

Adam Yates retained the overall lead in the Criterium du Dauphine as Wout Van Aert doubled up in France with victory on stage four.

Twenty-four hours after taking his first WorldTour win in Wednesday’s time trial, Belgian prodigy and former cyclo-cross champion Van Aert showed he can sprint as well as he held off Bora-Hansgrohe’s Irishman Sam Bennett to take victory in Voiron for Jumbo-Visma.

With the 201km stage from Boen-sur-Lignon coming down to a bunch finish, there were no changes at the top of the general classification, where Mitchelton-Scott’s Yates leads by four seconds from Dylan Theuns.

“Nothing really happened until about 60km to go,” Bury’s Yates said.