Evita Muzic beats Demi Vollering in La Vuelta Femenina after an exciting battle

Evita Muzic has won stage six of La Vuelta Femenina. The FDJ-Suez rider beat Demi Vollering in a sprint by two on the final climb La Laguna Negra. Yara Kastelijn crossed the line in third place a few seconds later. Vollering remains leader in the general classification.

The sixth stage of La Vuelta Femenina started in Tarazona. Immediately after the start the climbing started. It was never really steep, but the first 30 kilometers were still tough. The riders were then presented with a long flat run-up towards the final climb La Laguna Negra (6.5 km at 6.7%). The expectation was that the classification riders would compete here.

The difficult opening phase of the stage resulted in many attack attempts. After some five and six o’clock there was an early flight. The Low Countries were represented by Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels) and Fauve Bastiaenssen (Lotto Dstny). Claudia San Justo (Eneicat-CMTeam) and Aurela Nerlo (Winspace) were the two other attackers.

Waiting for the final climb
It also took a while for the four escapees to gain space from the peloton, but in the end they created a nice lead. They entered the last 30 kilometers with a two-minute lead. They were the riders of SD Worx-Protime, Liv AlUla Jayco and Visma | Lease a Bike who set the pace.

In the run-up to the final climb, the attackers quickly lost ground. Molenaar and Bastiaenssen lasted a little longer than San Justo and Nerlo and were only caught eighteen kilometers from the finish. The peloton then rode in group to the foot of La Laguna Negra.

Vollering takes over, women from Fenix-Deceuninck try
The first acceleration came about six kilometers from the finish. Grace Brown, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, took the lead convincingly and thinned out the peloton. The Australian held on for miles, but pulled over four kilometers from the finish. Vollering didn’t wait any longer and took over the lead. The Dutchman pushed hard and immediately released many favorites.

On a slightly less steep section it was up to Marlen Reusser to pick up the pace. That was short-lived, because Pauliena Rooijakkers had demarcated in the meantime. Vollering saw the danger and jumped to her compatriot’s wheel. A little later Yara Kastelijn tried, but her attempt was almost immediately countered by Vollering. So a group containing about ten favorites went to the final kilometer.

Music does it
In that final kilometer, Vollering continued to set the pace. Everyone had to let go, except Muzic. The French climber bit into Vollering’s rear wheel and was just able to get over in the last 50 meters. Vollering had nothing left and had to settle for second place. A little later, Kastelijn came third, ahead of Riejanne Markus. With Rooijakkers (eighth), another Dutch rider finished in the top 10. Vollering remains leader in the general classification.