Almost four years after her last professional victory, Anna van der Breggen escaped to a momentous victory on stage four of La Vuelta Femenina.
The 35-year-old returned to racing for SD Worx-Protime after three seasons out of the peloton at the beginning of the year, and attacked with 8km to go on Wednesday to win.
On a technical descent to the finish in Borja, Van der Breggen picked her place to push off the front, powering off in her trademark style to win once more - the 63rd of her career. The initiative in the chase group was lost the moment they hesitated as the attack happened.
Behind, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the sprint for second, with Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) finishing third.
Van der Breggen's teammate, Femke Gerritse, kept hold of the red jersey, with Van der Breggen moving up to second overall. Importantly, the Dutch winner has 17 seconds on Vollering, widely considered as the favourite for the overall.
"Really good, of course," Van der Breggen replied when asked how she felt post-victory. "I did not expect this at all, it was also not the plan. We were in a small group in the downhill at that point I was alone, I don’t know, the speed was out on a good moment and I went. I did not expect to arrive solo but it feels really nice.
"We knew it could be a hard last climb and we just wanted to be there with Mischa [Bredewold], Gerri [Femke Gerritse] and me for sure. The girls fought, but in the end it was a really small group so the idea was actually to try with Gerri again."
"It’s nice, yesterday was already such a good day, to see Gerri winning, and getting that confidence that she can beat one of the best sprinters like Marianne," Van der Breggen said, after her teammate won stage three. "It gave her a boost, so that was a great day for the team. We did not expect this, not at all, so it was really nice."
As for her continued tilt at GC, Van der Breggen said: "It’s going really well, but tomorrow will be honest. The speed on the climb was hard, and you saw how small the group was, so it’s going to be fighting for sure. This is in the pocket, so really good days for us to start with."
Stage five on Thursday sees the first mountain stage proper, with a summit finish on the category one climb of Lagunas de Neila.
How it happened
After two consecutive sprint stages in northwestern Spain, stage four of La Vuelta Femenina brought two classified climbs for the peloton. The 137 riders left in the bunch were destined for Borja, which gained fame as the town where a painting of Jesus was restored with unfortunate consequences.
The day started with misfortune, as a spectator fell into the peloton as it rolled out of Pedrola. Multiple attacks came in the opening kilometres, but nothing was able to get away, such was the pace of the first hour.
A significant group of eight, including Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Amalie Dideriksen (Cofidis) did escape, but they only survived out front for less than 10km.
The first classified climb of the day, the Alto del Moncayo, saw a flurry of attacks, with Ghekiere beating Évita Muzic (FDJ-Suez) to the top, taking control of the virtual mountains classification in the process.
After a descent from the climb, the day’s intermediate sprint saw race leader Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) beat Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) to the line, with six, four, and two bonus seconds awarded. Gerritse, therefore, extended her lead overall.
The second classified climb of the day, the Puerto de El Buste, began with less than 18km to go of the day, with the peloton coming into the base at high-speed, knowing that the peak would come with just over 12km left.
A quartet - Muzic, Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ), Mareille Meijering (Movistar) and Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) - briefly established a small gap but were quickly pegged back by the FDJ-Suez and Canyon-SRAM-led peloton. While other riders were dropping, Gerritse and Vos, the two previous stage winners, were still present.
Liane Lippert (Movistar) attacked close to the top, followed straight away by Vollering. However, the pair did not get clear of other favourites, but the red jersey, Gerritse, was dropped behind. Muzic went over the Puerto first, followed by Vollering, to boost her queen of the mountain claims.
With 10km to go, the attacks continued on the descent, led by Vollering from the front of the lead group of about 20, which Vos was still present in; they had about 20 seconds on the red jersey group at this point. Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) was the next to attack, but did not manage to get enough space; the next to go was Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), who did establish a small gap on the group of favourites. At this point, Gerritse made it back into the chasing group.
The former world champion used her trademark TT-style to maintain her lead into the final kilometre, with the chasing group resigned to their fate of sprinting for second. Van der Breggen won once more, three years and 300 days after her last victory, with Vos coming in second, and Vollering following in for third.
Results
La Vuelta Femenina stage four: Pedrola > Borja (111.6km)
1. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 2:49:55
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +12s
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-Suez
4. Monica Trinca Colonel (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco
5. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly
6. Liane Lippert (Deu) Movistar
7. Femke Gerritse (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
8. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar
9. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-Sram zondacrypto
10. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Lidl-Trek, all at same time
General classification after stage four
1. Femke Gerritse (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 8:57:51
2. Anna van der Breggan (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +4s
3. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +10s
4. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-Suez, +21s
5. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +23s
6. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek, at same time
7. Monica Trinca Colonel (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco, +26s
8. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
9. Mavi García (Spa) Liv AlUla Jayco, both at same time
10. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +29s
