Lotte Kopecký entered the press room for a yellow jersey press conference. The Belgian appeared to lose the leader's jersey on stage 4 of the Tour de France Femme from Cahors to Lodès, but a 14-man breakaway was more than 10 minutes ahead, with Audrey Cordon-Lago (Human Powered Health) taking the de facto lead.

But the hilly second stage, the longest in Women's WorldTour history, was still to come, and Kopecky's SD Works teammates began their chase. Still, when Jara Castellaine (Phoenix-Desseuninck) attacked from the breakaway group and eventually soloed to the stage win, the 25-year-old Dutchwoman was also the de facto GC leader for a while. [However, the peloton eventually closed the gap to the leaders, and Kopecký finished in 14th place, 1:27 behind the winner.

Kopecky's teammate Demi Volering moved into second place on the climb to Rodez. Kopecky confirmed that the situation in the final was not always clear for the athletes.

"Sometimes it was quite confusing because I wasn't sure about the time difference. On the last section uphill, I was able to catch up with some riders. But with 3 km to go I heard on the radio that Yara was 1:30 ahead.

On the second climb of the Côte de Moiraze with just under 20km to go, Castellain attacked from the breakaway, and Kopecký accelerated from the peloton on the same climb a few minutes later. Castellaine was still the de facto leader at this point, but Kopecký was not trying to defend the jersey. Rather, she wanted to create a foothold for Vollering to move.

"I was going to help Demi go on the attack, hoping she would get rid of the others and I could help her to the finish," Kopecký explained.

Eventually, Volering's move was followed by Annemiek van Fruten (Movistar), but the SD Works rider managed to shake off her rivals on the final climb.

The length of the stage, over 180 km including the neutral start, was also a topic of discussion. Kopecky said he did not mind the inclusion of such a long stage, but did not want the race to overdo it

.

"I like these long races. It doesn't have to be every race, but it's nice to have it once in a stage race." After Kopecky took the yellow jersey for the fourth time, he returned to the team bus to don the yellow jersey and prepare for the next day.