Marianne Vos won her second consecutive stage of the Vuelta Femenina on Thursday, after her Jumbo-Visma team reeled in late breaks on the long road from Cuenca to Guadalajara.
After a third stage that played out at a record-breaking speed, stage four was a more gruelling affair. The halfway mark of the week-long race, the 133.1km (82.7 mile) route through central Spain featured a number of smaller climbs that offered opportunities to launch a breakaway.
A three-rider break featuring Anna Kiesenhofer (Israel Premier Tech Roland), Tota Magalhães (Bizkaia-Durango) and Patricia Ortega (Massi-Tactic) was reeled in with 35km to go and the GC contenders tried and failed to open up a time gap on Vos, who had to recover from an early mechanical problem.
Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) launched a late attack from the top of the category three Alto de Horche but was quickly reeled in, with Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) also unable to get away on the final descent. Demi Vollering (SD-Worx) was another pushing in the leading group but Vos and her teammates kept pace.
It came down to a sprint finish once again and Vos overhauled Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) and Marlen Reusser (SD-Worx) with a late surge to the line. The Dutch rider stays in the overall lead, 25 seconds clear of Dygert. Jumbo-Visma’s Riejanne Markus and Amber Kraak are in third and fourth place.
Vos told Eurosport that her team had to work “really hard. It was really nervous today, because of yesterday’s echelons. We had to control the group, control the breaks and my team did it so well.”
The race now moves to the mountains for the final three stages, with Friday’sincluding the category one Puerto de Navafría before a summit finish above Riaza that is expected to shake things up considerably before the mountains over the weekend.
