In 2019, Franziska Koch won the fourth stage of the Boels Ladies Tour (now the Simac Ladies Tour) as a 19-year-old neo-pro. Five years later, the DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider became the leading rider in a 14-rider breakaway group on stage 4 of the 2024 event and worked hard to hold off the peloton to take the overall lead and her first career GC leader jersey.

“The group was pretty big and DS told me I was the best placed GC rider in the group. So I decided to run hard. I kept the distance from the peloton as big as I could and rode full throttle,” Koch said after the stage.

At the finish, the breakaway still had a 36-second advantage. Koch started 31 seconds behind GC leader Zoe Beckstedt (Canyon-SRAM), so the German champion took the yellow jersey.

“It was a bit unexpected, but my motivation is still high at the end of the season and it's my first leader's jersey. It's a new experience and I'm looking forward to the future,” said Koch.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Works-Protime) is in third place overall, eight seconds behind Koch. The world champion's team has won three straight with Wiebes and Guariski, who stepped up from the breakaway group, and Kopecký could still take the yellow jersey from Koch if she gains enough bonus seconds in the next two stages.

“It's going to come full circle; a stage win in 2019, if I can be part of the GC now, that would be great. Everything is possible. It's going to be hard, but we'll give it our best and see what happens. I'm still in good shape, so I'm confident for the next two days,” Koch said, ready to take on the competition.