Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) has asserted herself as the queen of the Basque Country, attacking on the Mendizorrotz climb and soloing to the finish to win the final stage and the GC of the Itzulia Women, her sixth stage win and second overall victory in the Basque stage race.
At the finish in Donostia, Vollering had a 44-second lead and could celebrate her victory. Thalita de Jong (Lotto Dstny Ladies) won the sprint for second place ahead of Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) and Olivia Baril (Movistar Team).
“It was a hard day for me because I had stomach problems today, but we had made a plan to attack on the last climb and try to stay away. If not, then I have Marlen in that group behind me and the rest of my teammates, then we could play the game, but I could stay away, and I am really happy with that. It feels good to do such a long solo,” said Vollering.
“I always really liked this race, so I’m really happy I can win again. It’s amazing, we win every stage three years in a row, that’s incredible. It says something about what a strong team we are and how much we like these kinds of races, to always be very active and take it into our own hands. And I also like to work for my teammates, Mischa did really well the last two days, so I’m happy that we can do it like this as a team."
Bredewold finishes runner-up to her teammate, 34 seconds down, while Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) completes the podium in third place at 52 seconds.
How it unfolded
Stage 3 covered 114.9km in the area around Donostia, including the well-known climbs of Jaizkibel, Gurutze, and Mendizorrotz. The peloton stayed together until a group of 15 riders went away just before the start of the Jaizkibel.
12 of them stayed together on the climb: Eleonora Ciabocco (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime), Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), Urška Žigart (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Carina Schrempf, Inge van der Heijden (both Fenix-Deceuninck), Claire Steels (Movistar Team), Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM), Nikola Nosková (Cofidis), Victorie Guilman (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93), Elena Pirrone (Roland), and Laura Asencio (Ceratizit-WNT).
35 seconds ahead at the top, the group built a gap of 2:30 minutes with 52km to go. Nosková, Spratt, Asencio, and Žigart were best-placed in the GC, only 29 seconds behind Bredewold, so SD Worx-Protime and FDJ-SUEZ took up the chase in the peloton and reduced the gap to 23 seconds at the bottom of the Mendizorrotz climb.
Spratt, Steels, Schrempf, and Van der Heijden got a small gap on the other escapees, but when Vollering and Labous bridged to the front on the steepest part of the climb, they couldn’t follow. Another acceleration from Vollering dropped Labous, leaving the Dutch champion to crest the climb solo with 28.5km to go.
25km from the finish, she had extended her gap to 43 seconds on a chase group of nine that included Labous, Spratt and her teammate Isabella Holmgren, Niamh Fisher-Black, Marlen Reusser (both SD Worx-Protime), Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), Ella Wyllie (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), and Thalita de Jong (Lotto Dstny Ladies).
1:13 minutes behind, there was another chase group that included Bredewold, Vas, Baril, Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek), Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), Julie Bego (Cofidis), and Marion Bunel (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93).
This second chase group eventually grew to a peloton of 27 as dropped riders came back from behind. Vollering increased her gap further to almost a minute with Fisher-Black and Reusser running interference behind, and the chase group was caught at the two-kilometre mark.
Vollering was now certain of her victory and could celebrate on the finishing straight. In addition to the stage win, the neon-yellow leader’s jersey, and the traditional winner’s txapela, she won the mountain classification as well as the points classification – one point ahead of Bredewold. SD Worx-Protime also won the team classification, Wyllie was the best U23 rider due to taking two bonus seconds in the last intermediate sprint from the chase group. Ane Santesteban (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) was the best Basque rider.
Results
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