With force majeure! Marianne Vos sprints to victory in La Vuelta Femenina

Marianne Vos has won the third stage of La Vuelta Femenina 2024. After an unexciting ride, the Dutch rider turned out to be by far the fastest in the final sprint. Charlotte Kool came second, Olivia Baril third. Remarkable: exactly eighteen years ago (April 30, 2006), Vos recorded her very first professional victory.

Once again a stage with only one categorized obstacle, but the riders were still able to prepare for a tough day in the saddle. On the profile map we see that it is almost not even a meter flat and we also see this in the number of altitude meters to be overcome. The Fuente de Rubielos (6.1 km at 6.2%, max. 11.5%) may be the only climb of the day where mountain points can be earned, but that is not the fair story. The riders had to overcome almost 2,500 meters of altitude towards the finish in Teruel. A ride not to be underestimated.

Lonely in the lead
The first attack of the day came from Mireia Benito. The Spaniard from AG Insurance-Soudal Team single-handedly created a one-minute lead. Behind it we saw some frantic attempts to launch a counter-attack. Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek), Eva van Agt (Visma | Lease a Bike), Amber Kraak (FDJ-SUEZ), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Thalita de Jong (Lotto Dstny ) managed to break away for a while, but were soon captured again.

After these skirmishes, peace returned to the peloton and this played into Benito’s hands. The soloist saw her lead continue to increase, to almost five minutes at the top of the Alto Fuento de Rubielos (6 km at 6%). On this climb it was in vain to wait for a spectacle, although the peloton continued to ride briskly. This caused several riders to get into trouble. It went too fast for Monday’s stage winner, Alison Jackson.

Mountain queen Swinkels is doing good business
While Jackson was struggling in the background, mountain queen Karlijn Swinkels saw an excellent opportunity to gain some extra points. The Dutch woman from UAE Team ADQ finished second on the Alto Fuento de Rubielos, managed to increase her points total even further and thus secured an extra day in the mountain jersey. It turned out to be a rare moment of excitement in an otherwise historyless stage.

Grace Brown must have thought that too and so the Australian speed skater decided to shake things up a bit by counterattacking. The winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège quickly took a lead of several hundred meters over the peloton, but it turned out to be no more than a blank. Brown’s acceleration had gotten the peloton moving, also because of the intermediate sprint in Mora de Rubielos. Brown came second, ahead of Blanka Vas, who managed to strengthen her position as leader.

This all happened at a great disadvantage to Benito. The Spaniard was still three minutes ahead of the peloton with 35 kilometers to go. In this peloton we now saw a pinprick of the women of SD Worx-Protime. Bredewold (once again) and even Demi Vollering rode with their noses in the wind for a while, but were given no room. This was for Visma | Lease a Bike is the signal to take control of the race, in the service of Marianne Vos. The Dutch brigade was clearly aiming for a sprint.

This increased the nervousness in the peloton and unfortunately there were more falls. Teniel Campbell, Daniek Hengeveld and Natalie Grinczer crashed. Fortunately, the first two were able to continue on their way, but Grinczer remained motionless. The British member of the Swiss Roland team appeared to be badly damaged and even had to be taken to hospital. In the meantime, the peloton increasingly chipped away at the deficit. Benito was a bird to the proverbial cat, but was not easily captured.

Brave Benito doesn’t make it, sprinters get ready
However, the race conditions were not in favor of a lone leader. In the final, the peloton was sent over long and straight roads and the wind was also at a disadvantage. Benito felt the mood coming and was grabbed by the wrists just seven kilometers from the finish – after a whole day of attacking. Then it was up to the sprinter teams to put their trains on the rails as best as possible. The pace quickly increased on the way to the last three kilometers.

Once in the ‘safe’ zone of the last three kilometers, the peloton was once again shocked by a crash including Thalita de Jong, but this time the damage seemed to not be too bad. The riders who were sitting before the crash were now hurtling at high speed towards the rag of the last kilometer. Visma | Lease a Bike seemed to have its affairs well organized, although Vos had to arrange it himself in the last hundreds of meters.

Vos records a special victory
However, this turned out to be no problem for the Dutch glutton. With her characteristic explosive start, Vos immediately managed to gain several bike lengths over the competition and had plenty of time to celebrate her 252nd (!) professional victory of her career. Charlotte Kool finished second at an appropriate distance, and Canadian Olivia Baril finished third on behalf of Movistar. It is a special victory for Vos, as she achieved her first professional victory exactly eighteen years ago (April 30, 2006).