Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 5 of La Vuelta Femenina on the Fuerte Rapitán finishing climb, setting the pace from 2.1km to go and dropping riders one by one.
On the final kilometre, Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) were the last to give in, and Vollering powered ahead to win the stage by 28 seconds, with Kastelijn beating Longo Borghini to second place.
Vollering is also the new overall leader, with a 31-second lead on Longo Borghini.
“Last year, I had this beautiful jersey already, but I was wearing the UCI [Women’s WorldTour] jersey, so I had so many wins last year, but never in this pretty jersey. It was my goal for this season to win before the Dutch championships again, so I’m really happy that now I have a nice finish photo in this jersey. This red jersey is a really pretty one, and I hope I can keep it to the very end,” Vollering was happy to win in the Dutch champion’s jersey before exchanging it for the red jersey of the Vuelta Femenina GC leader.
Vollering led up the climb before distancing her nearest rivals, Kastelijn and Longo Borghini, to win solo.
“I just started to pace and felt really, really good. I tried to keep going because I felt Elisa was struggling a little bit in my wheel. I was like, ‘OK, then I just try to give it my very all to the very end, and I hope I can get already some time on her’. That worked out, so that’s really nice, and hopefully a few more nice days coming for our team,” Vollering described the finishing climb.
How it unfolded
There were a few breakaway attempts early on the 113.9km stage from Huesca to Jaca, but they were all brought back, and the peloton then stayed together until Lourdes Oyarbide (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) attacked with 55km to go.
Oyarbide had a 30-second advantage at the bottom of the not overly steep 18.5km climb to the Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña but was caught a third of the way up when FDJ-SUEZ set a high pace in the peloton.
Four kilometres from the top, Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) and Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) attacked, followed by Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime), but they were quickly reeled in again.
Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) made a move in the last kilometre of the climb but was overtaken by Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) who took maximum points and defended her polka-dot jersey.
Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) crashed on the descent and looked dazed, but continued the race, finishing seven minutes down in the end. The peloton had been whittled down to only 11 riders after the downhill, though dropped riders came back to make it a group of 27.
An acceleration by Mareille Meijering (Movistar Team) led to a front group of about ten riders from which Swinkels went solo, winning the intermediate sprint in downtown Jaca before being caught just before the climb to the finish began.
After a turn from Brown, Sarah Gigante came to the front and led the group, and Rooijakkers took over 2.5km from the line. When Vollering took over with Longo Borghini in her wheel, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) couldn’t follow the pace and dropped back, leaving a little gap at the front of the group of favourites.
Gigante and Kastelijn closed this gap, but Vollering continued to ride hard, and 1.5km from the finish, only Longo Borghini, Kastelijn, Rooijakkers and Gigante remained with her.
About 200 metres later, Rooijakkers and Gigante had to let go, and at the flamme rouge, Longo Borghini was also struggling. It was Kastelijn that was dropped first, but Longo Borghini also lost contact, and Vollering went all-in on the last 800 metres to maximise her time gains.
Kastelijn came back to Longo Borghini and squeezed past for second place, 28 seconds down. Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) recovered to finish fourth at 39 seconds, two seconds ahead of Gigante.
Results
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