SD Worx-Protime rider Femke Gerritse powered to an impressive sprint victory at the end of the 132km third stage of La Vuelta Femenina, pipping green jersey Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) to the line.
The bonus seconds also saw the Dutch 23-year-old lift the leader's red jersey from the shoulders of Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco), who is now third, with Vos in-between.
Britain's Cat Ferguson (Movistar) was not far behind, in ninth place on the stage.
It came at the end of a fraught final two kilometres, which saw a major crash towards the back of the bunch in the finishing town of Huesca.
"It's really crazy, I didn't expect this," Gerritse said afterwards. "I took the bonus sprint and thought, 'OK, my sprint is good', but the final was so chaotic but I just stayed calm. I felt Marianne coming but I kept first place. It's really crazy.
In fact Gerritse described the whole stage as chaotic: "The first part was really twisty and turny, wet also and up and down.
"And the wind was coming, not in a good direction; it was more headwind than echelon wind. But I was happy this was a sprint."
She praised the lead-out by her SDWorx team – which dominated proceedings in the final kilometres – calling it "really, really, really perfect".
"We took the lead with I think 2K to go, and Anna [Van der Breggen] and Mischa [Bredewold], they are just so amazing. They kept on going and going and I could stay calm and it was really the perfect lead-out."
How it happened
Taking riders 132.4km from Barbastro to Huesca in the north of Spain, this was something of a stage of two halves, with a lumpy opening salvo settling into gently rolling territory that held great promise for the fast finishers and their teams.
Naturally, that did not stop an early break going clear – in this case with 125km to go and consisting of five riders: Marina Garau (BePink-Imatra-Bongioanni), Ariana Gilabert (Eneica-CMTeam), Maaike Coljé (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Magdalene Lind (Coop-Repsol), Marion Borras (Cofidis).
The quintet managed to gain three minutes on the peloton behind fairly swiftly, hovering around that mark for around 35km before beginning to tumble as the chasing bunch upped its focus.
They were eventually caught with 33km to go, around which time the race began to encounter some troubling – though not catastrophic – cross-headwinds. It caused one or two minor splits in the bunch, which were remedied relatively quickly by those on the wrong side.
Entering the finishing town of Huesca saw a big crash near the back of the bunch which appeared to upset the flow of even those at the front. However, by the time they reached the final kilometre, SDWorx had an iron grip on proceedings and duly delivered their rider to the win.
Results
Vuelta Femenina 2025, stage 3: Barbastra > Huesca, 132.4km
1. Femke Gerritse (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, 132.4km in 3:23:24
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
3. Linda Zanetti (Swi) Uno-X Mobility
4. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
5. Megan Jastrab (USA) Picnic PostNL
6. Victoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-Suez
7. Letizia Paternoster (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco
8. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto
9. Cat Ferguson (GBR) Movistar
10. Agnieszka Skalniak-Sózka (Pol) Caynon-SRAM Zondacrypto, all at same time
General Classification
1. Femke Gerritse (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 6:07:50
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, at 12sec
3. Letizia Paternoster (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco, at s.t.
4. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Lidl-Trek, at 17sec
5. Monica Trinca-Colonel (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco, at 20sec
6. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
7. Anna van der Breggan (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
8. Mavi García (Spa) Liv AlUla Jayco, all at s.t.
9. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-Suez, at 23sec
10. Marie Le Net (Fra) FDJ-Suez, at s.t.
