NOS Cycling•today, 5:27 PM
Vollering is the strongest uphill in the fifth stage of the Vuelta and takes over the lead
Demi Vollering has seized power in the first mountain stage of La Vuelta Femenina. The Dutch leader of SD Worx won the fifth stage and took over the red leader’s jersey from Marianne Vos.
“I feel like it took me a long time to get my first win this season, but I’m very happy to do it here,” said a relieved Vollering after the finish.
Vollering won two stages in the Spanish round last year and finished second in the general classification, behind the now retired Annemiek van Vleuten. In 2022, Vollering finished third in the Vuelta.
Quiet approach to the mountains
The stage from Huesca to Jaca started quietly. There were a few crashes, involving Vos, among others, but no leading group. Only halfway through the ride, with about fifty kilometers to the finish, was there a successful attack.
Lourdes Oyarbide started as the lone escapee with a half-minute lead on the first climb of the day: the San Juan de la Peña.
Vollering happy with first win of the season: ‘It took a long time in my opinion’
But the Spaniard was not able to arrive at the top first. On the climb, with parts where the gradient exceeds eleven, the pace in the peloton increased and Oyarbide was overtaken.
The French team FDJ-Suez in particular kept the pace high. They did this for their leader Évita Muzic, who lost two minutes to classification leader Vos on Wednesday because she was not in the first group. But Muzic could not stay with Vollering in the final kilometers and eventually finished fourth.
Vas has to release
The pace was too high for Blanka Vas. The Hungarian, who had the red around her shoulders for two days this Vuelta and was surpassed by Vos yesterday, could not follow the group uphill.
In the descent the peloton splintered and a front group emerged including Vos, Demi Vollering and the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini. But the group of favorites was looking too much at each other and was overtaken by the chasing group in the run-up to the final climb.
Karlijn Swinkels, the Dutch wearer of the mountain jersey, then tried solo, but with three kilometers to go, her flight was over. On the short but steep Alto del Fuerte Rapitán, classification leader Vos had to pass and she knew she would lose the red.
Longo Borghini and Yara Kastelijn were able to follow Vollering, the top favorite for the overall victory, for a long time, but in the last kilometer Vollering still left everyone behind him. The Dutch finished almost half a minute ahead of Kastelijn and Longo Borghini.
