Demi Vollering took her first victory of the season on stage five of the Vuelta Femenina, climbing to victory atop the Alto del Fuerte Rapitán, and taking the red jersey in the process.
The SD Worx-Protime rider powered up the second-category climb, comfortably pushing everyone else off her wheel, to break her season duck. 28 seconds behind, Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) took second place, out-sprinting Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek).
After disappointment in the Ardennes Classics, Vollering reminded everyone of her class in the seemingly comfortable victory on the first significantly hilly stage at the Vuelta. It was the 30th win of her career.
Heading into stage six, Vollering now has 31 seconds on Longo Borghini, and 53 seconds on Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike). Two of the final three stages are summit finishes, on which Vollering will hope to increase her stranglehold on red.
Outgoing red jersey wearer Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) conceded the race lead, but now is in charge of the green points jersey.
"I felt really strong this season, but it [the win] was not just there," Vollering said. "I had some podiums, but the win took a long time for me this year. I’m really happy that I could do it here. Last year, I had this beautiful jersey [the Dutch champion's jersey] already, but I was wearing the UCI leader’s jersey. So the goal was for me to win a few times this season in the Dutch champion’s jersey before the championships.
"It’s sad that this jersey will be another jersey now," she joked. |This red jersey is a really pretty one, and I hope I can take it to the very end.
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"I just started the pace, and I felt really really good," she explained about her climb. "I just tried to keep going, because I could feel Elisa was struggling a bit in my wheels, so I gave it my all to the very end. I hoped to get some time already on her, that worked out so it’s very nice. Hopefully a few more nice days are coming for our team."
How it happened
Grace Brown and Antonia Niedermaier on stage five of the Vuelta
(Image credit: Getty Images)
With all eyes on the summit finish, it was a day without a significant break. Antri Christoforou (Roland) attempted to get up the road early on, but was caught with 90km still to go. Then it wasn’t until 57km to go that another rider surged off the front, this time Loudes Oyarbide (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) trying something, and while the gap grew to 30 seconds, she was caught with 41km to go.
On the second-category climb of Alto del Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña, many of the fast finishers were dropped from the bunch, although Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) remained there.
Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) and Antonia Nierdermaier (Canyon-SRAM) attempted a move, but that was soon caught. Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ), the leader of the QOM category, took the maximum points on the Alto del Monasterio.
On the fast, long descent, there were attempts at moves, but nothing stuck. Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) crashed, and was then distanced from the bunch.
With 13km to go, as the bunch approached the final climb, the second-category Alto del Fuerte Rapitán, Swinkels went off the front again. She won the intermediate sprint, but was caught with 3.1km to go.
As the road started to head upwards, race leader Vos drifted off the back of the group, meaning the red jersey would be changing hands at the end of the day.
Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) was the next significant name to lose contact with the leaders, as a high pace was set by Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime). Mavi Garcia (Liv AlUla Jayco) then fell off the back.
Into the final kilometre, the lead group was down to just three riders: Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck)
With 700m to go, Vollering made the decisive attack, and put almost half a minute into her pursuers.
Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
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