The world road champion, Annemiek van Vleuten, took control of the La Vuelta Femenina before Sunday’s final stage, and is now more than a minute clear of Demi Vollering, her rival for the red jersey, on the bumpy road to Laredo.
After the SD-Worx rider’s statement victory on stage five to take a narrow, five-second lead into La Vuelta’s sixth and penultimate stage, Van Vleuten needed to respond if she wanted to defend her title. The 40-year-old did just that, taking the field apart on the first climb and only narrowly being denied the stage win by Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) – the Italian’s first victory on the Women’s WorldTour – by a photo finish.
Vollering, 26, spent the majority of the 106km stage chasing Van Vleuten after an unfortunately timed comfort break left the SD Worx rider on the wrong side of the crosswinds as Movistar Team went on the attack around the 36km mark. Vollering ultimately saw her advantage on the start line in Castro Urdiales slip away to become a 1min 11sec deficit going into the mountainous stage seven.
Only Realini could stick with Van Vleuten after the 2022 race winner powered away from Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), Juliette Labous (Team DSM) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) just before the intermediate sprint. Credit to Realini, who dug deep to reel in Van Vleuten, before taking the stage win by the narrowest of margins in a leg-sapping sprint finish. The result was changed twice before the judges settled on the Trek rider as the winner, but the photo on the line showed the correct call was eventually made.
Movistar’s decision to attack while Vollering was taking a comfort break did attract some scrutiny post-stage, but Van Vleuten insisted the team’s plan to make the move early was hatched before her rivals stopped as a reaction to the windy conditions.
The race leader told reporters in Laredo: “On team radio they’ve been like: ‘Are you ready for action? Because we’ve got a great opportunity,’ and we’ve all said: ‘Yeah, let’s go for it.’ We know the area well and it was a very good time to move. After making our plan, some girls have stopped to pee. I’ve felt a little bad for them, but maybe it was a bad time. It is part of the competition to choose where to stop and not when there is a windy area ahead.
“I wanted the bonus seconds, so I attacked again, and only [Realini] could follow me, but it was still an individual time trial until the end. I think in the group behind Marlen Reusser was with [Vollering], so it was one person against a group.
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“Now, of course, they will have to attack me tomorrow and I have no need. It will be a very hard day. I have emptied myself and I must recover.”
Vollering, who has still has a 12-second advantage over third-placed Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma), has a lot of work to do in La Vuelta’s 94km final stage but with a category two climb up the Collada Moandi before the summit finish up the imposing Lagos de Covadonga it will not be straightforward for Van Vleuten.
