Saturday's stage of La Vuelta Femenina raised controversy as overall leader Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) lost her red classification jersey to Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team). It began only 36km into the 106-kilometre stage because of a combination of a nature break and a crosswind situation.
Van Vleuten and Movistar said that they had planned to put the race in the gutter from the get-go of stage 6. Vollering and SD Worx countered that it was more of a headwind than a crosswind, adding that the race jury enforced a barrage when riders were dropped from the peloton because of the increased speed.
“At 70 kilometres from the finish, me and some other riders on my team had to pee. Femke Markus also just had a puncture. It was just before a town. Nothing seemed to be happening. At that moment the peloton was riding at a slow pace,” Vollering recounted after the stage had finished about the decisive moment in the race.
