Pauline Ferrand-Prvot knew she wouldnt win stage fours time trial at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, but she maybe didnt expect to tumble more than two minutes down the general classification. Thirty-fourth on the day, the Frenchwoman finished 2:13 adrift of the stage winner, and new yellow jersey wearer, Marlen Reusser (Movistar), and 1:55 off last years runner-up, Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), her big GC rival. As a result, the defending champion is now 14th overall, and will need to claw back time over the next five stages if shes to retain her yellow jersey. I did my best and I pushed as hard as I could. Now theres nothing I can do, Ferrand-Prvot told the media beyond the finish line. It was quite a lot of stress. Even though I finished far off, I still prepared a lot. Im glad this day is over. The 21km course between Gevrey-Chambertin and Dijon always suited the pelotons mightiest specialists against the clock. Ferrand-Prvot, by contrast, a diminutive climber, hadnt raced a time trial in more than five years, having switched her ambitions to mountain biking.Asked ahead of the race if she felt she was starting from zero in her time trial preparation, she laughed that it was more minus 10 [but] I did my homework quite well. That preparation included wind tunnel testing and positional work to relieve pressure from the two surgeries she had had to treat iliac artery endofibrosis. This meant that she sat quite high in the saddle. It wasnt the prettiest sight, it wasnt the fastest for everyone else in the peloton, but it was the fastest for me, she said. Attention will now turn at Visma-Lease a Bike to how Ferrand-Prvot can recover her GC position before Sunday's finale in Nice. This year is not lost, her sports director Jos van Emden said. This is some kind of starting point. Wednesdays fifth stage is expected to be raced like a one-day Classic, with eight categorised climbs on the route to Belleville-en-Beaujolais. Theres also the races queen stage still to come: a 21km climb to Mont Ventoux on day seven.Last year, on the Col de la Madeleine, I took quite a lot of time [ed 3:03 to Vollering]. This year, we have Ventoux, which is a long climb, too, Ferrand-Prvot said. And in the face of disappointment, she picked herself up, and made sure to stay optimistic: Its also good now to not be the favourite. Its like, Ok, I need to catch them. Its also something I like.