Évita Muzic outfoxed Demi Vollering atop La Laguna Negra to take the biggest victory of her career on stage six of the Vuelta Femenina.
The FDJ-Suez rider has won a stage of the Giro d'Italia Women before, and finished second on a Tour de France Femmes stage, but on Friday she beat one of the best riders in the world, SD Worx-Protime's Vollering, on an incredibly tough climb.
The Dutchwoman might not have taken the second win of the race, but strengthened her grip on the red jersey, taking time on her nearest rivals Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike). Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) finished third on the stage.
Muzic was the only rider able to follow Vollering when she moved off the front of the group of favourites at the end of stage six, and then timed her sprint to perfection to take the victory. Her FDJ-Suez team, especially Grace Brown, had put a lot of work in early on the climb to make sure her teammate was in the right place come the end.
It was a win that Muzic had foreshadowed pre-race, saying she wanted to follow Vollering and outs-print her atop the climb.
"I said this, but I was not 100% sure I could do it," the 24-year-old said. "When I looked back and I saw I was the only one on the wheel of Vollering, I was just focusing on not getting dropped. After that I got her, and I was very proud of what I’ve done, because all the team did a really good job all the race to keep me in the first position and did a leadout on the first part of the climb. They were amazing.
"It means a lot. I often finish fourth, and I wanted one big victory, and now I have. I’ll now be more confident… now I have the legs.
"For the GC, it will be hard for the victory, but I will try to gain more places, and why not one more victory."
Saturday's stage seven is largely flat but with a kick up to the line, before another summit finish completes the race on Sunday.
How it happened
Early attacks from Lily Williams (Human Powered Health), Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels), Jelena Erić (Movistar), Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal), Liane Lippert (Movistar) and Olivia Baril (Movistar), later joined by Eva van Agt (Visma-Lease a Bike) threatened to shake the race up, but they were caught with 89km to go.
The day’s main break was established with 81km to go, when Aurela Nerlo (Winspace) joined Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels), Fauve Bastiaenssen (Lotto Dstny) and Claudia San Justo (Eneicat-CMTeam) at the front of the race. Their gap reached over three minutes at times, but the peloton was always set to catch them
With 59km to go, Visma-Lease a Bike attempted to surprise the peloton with a duo attack from Carlijn Achtereekte and Van Agt, but this was soon extinguished.
As the road began to head upwards towards the day's only categorised climb, Molenaar and Bastiaenssen were left alone at the front of the race, seemingly attacking each other in an attempt to secure the combativity award for one of them.
They were finally caught with just under 18km to go, thanks to pressure on the front from Visma-Lease a Bike, who wanted to secure maximum points for green jersey wearer Marianne Vos. Inevitably, Vos won the intermediate sprint at 17km to go.
The final climb of La Laguna Negra was the first first-category climb of the Vuelta, and Lidl-Trek and FDJ-Suez pulled the reduced bunch to begin with, but this soon ended. With 4km to go, around 18 riders remained in the lead group.
Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), the race leader, set the pace on the front, as she had on Thursday’s stage five, which she won in similar fashion. Rather than hiding in the bunch, the Dutchwoman was keen to do all the work.
The first big name to drop was Mavi García (AlUla Jayco), who lost contact with the lead group with just under 3km to go.
The group of favourites soon thinned out, with Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Évita Muzic among those who remained.
The first attack came from Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), with 1.6km to go; Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) helped shut this down, and then finished her work for the day. Vollering chased on, followed by Longo Borghini and Rooijakkers’ teammate Yara Kastelijn.
Kastelijn was the next to try something, but this was quickly neutralised by Vollering as the remaining riders went under the flamme rouge.
Vollering pushed off the front, followed by Muzic; the pair distanced Kastelijn, Longo Borghini and Markus. With the line in sight, Muzic opened up her sprint, and was able to pip Vollering to the line.
Results
Vuelta Femenina stage 6: Tarazona to La Laguna Negra (132.1km)
1. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, in 4:10:20
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +2s
3. Yara Kastelijn (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +15s
4. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +17s
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +21s
6. Ricarda Bauerfind (Ger) Canyon-SRAM
7. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, both at same time
8. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +33s
9. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) SD Worx-Protime, +38s
10. Kim Cazdow (NZl) EF Education-Cannondale, +40s
General classification after stage six
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 17:20:01
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +56s
3. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:14
4. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL. +1:38
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) SD Worx-Protime, +2:42
6. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +2:42
7. Marlen Reusser (Sui) SD Worx-Protime, +2:52
8. Ricarda Bauerfind (Ger) Canyon-SRAM, +3:17
9. Yara Kastelijn (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, + 3:25
10. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF Education-Cannondale, +3:29
