Vos masters both the wind and the hills
May 4 th 2024 - 16:39 [GMT + 2]
Few athletes in the world of sports have aged like Marianne Vos has done – evolving from a sharp all-rounder to a consistent fast-woman, yet keeping a killer instinct that enables her to expand her legend with every racing day. The Visma | Lease a Bike scored her second stage victory in La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es this Saturday in Sigüenza, outpowering Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) in the final uphill kick to win the stage and seal the Points classification on her favor. Fourth across the finish line was Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), who duly navigated the echelons that defined yet another windy stage in order to keep the Red jersey as an overall leader ahead of the final mountain day tomorrow between Madrid’s Distrito Telefónica and Valdesquí.
122 riders took the start in the 7th stage of La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es, which covered 138,6 kilometres between San Esteban de Gormaz and Sigüenza, at 12:54 CEST. There was one DNS in Debora Silvestri (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), as a consequence of her crash in stage 4. After a very aggressive start, it took 25 kilometers for Laura Tomasi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Anna Kiesenhofer (Roland), Yuliia Biriukova (Human Powered Health) and Veronica Ewers (EF Education-Cannondale) to go clear, followed by Angela Oro (Bepink-Bongioanni), Quinty Schoens (Volkerwessels) and Stina Kagevi (Coop-Repsol). These two groups merged to form a seven-strong breakaway whose advantage peaked at 1’25” in Almazán (km 59) … yet it was shut down at kilometer 73, as the peloton accelerated out of sheer fear that the strong cross-tailwinds would create echelons like the ones we saw in stage 4.
A stubborn Kiesenhofer
Current Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer was not ready to just sit within the peloton and took off again as soon as her six fellow escapees were brought back. Many riders counter-attacked. Those whose move stuck were Tota Magalhaes (Bepink-Bongioanni), Anya Louw (AG Insurance-Soudal), Laura Molenaar (Volkerwessels), Georgie Howe (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Carolina Vargas (Eneicat-CM Team), Flora Perkins (Fenix-Deceuninck), Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health). They eventually joined forces and linked back with Kiesenhofer at kilometre 90, creating a nine-strong group at the front that bore a one-minute gap on a peloton that has been as far behind the Roland rider as 1’50”, clocked at kilometre 85. They kept a 33” gap on the Visma-led peloton at Barahona (IS, km 97,9). Vargas came first across the intermediate sprint. Meanwhile, her teammate and compatriot Andrea Alzate crashed out of the race.
Echelons before the steep uphill finish in Sigüenza
As the road turned south again after Barahona, Lidl-Trek put the hammer down and found the cooperation of riders from Liv-AlUla-Jayco and SD Worx-Protime to create echelons and whittle down the peloton. Out of the top10 riders in the GC, only Fenix-Deceuninck’s Yara Kastelijn missed out on the split. The resulting 30-woman front group rode fast towards the final 500-meter uphill kick in Sigüenza, with several attacks by SD Worx-Protime’s Mischa Bredewold and Marlen Reusser failing to go clear. EF Education-Cannondale led the final climb, first with Alison Jackson and then with Kristen Faulkner. Visma | Lease a Bike’s Marianne Vos only came out of her wheel with 150 meters to go to power away and raise her arms in victory ahead of Faulkner herself and Lidl-Trek’s Elisa Longo Borghini.
