Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) won stage 7 of La Vuelta Femenina, her second stage victory of the 2024 edition.
Part of a front echelon of 30 riders that formed 38km from the finish, the green jersey wearer followed Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) on the 500-metre climb to the finish and launched her sprint on the last 200 metres.
Vos had time to celebrate on the line, two seconds ahead of Faulkner and Longo Borghini. Demi Vollering (SD Worxs-Protime) finished fourth and defended her red leader's jersey. With one stage to go, she is now 52 seconds ahead of Longo Borghini.
“We really wanted to go for the stage win today, that’s the reason why the team controlled [it]. And of course, when they do so much work, you want to make it in the final," Vos said after her 253rd road victory.
"Riejanne Markus and I were in this final break when the echelons started. That was a good situation, but of course also a little bit hard to control, so a little bit stressful. But when we entered the final kilometre, we just tried to stay in the best possible position and go for it."
How it unfolded
The first breakaway that wasn’t reeled back in right away consisted of seven riders including Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer (Roland), who attacked again right away when they were caught with 65km to go in the 138.6km stage.
She was joined by eight more riders at the 50-kilometre mark, but right after contesting the intermediate sprint 40.7km from the finish, the breakaway fell apart in the crosswinds and was soon caught by the peloton that spilt into several echelons.
The first group consisted of 30 riders including most of the GC riders. The most prominent riders to miss out were Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), ninth overall going into the stage, and Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale), 11th overall. With 32 km to go, most of the dropped groups merged to form a peloton again, already 1:07 minutes behind the front group.
The gap hovered around a minute until the final ten kilometres when riders in the front group started attacking for the stage win. As the group slowed down between the attacks of Mischa Bredewold, Marlen Reusser (both SD Worx-Protime), and Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), the peloton reduced their deficit to just over 30 seconds.
Bredewold made another move with 3.9km to go and got away with Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale), Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), and Lily Williams (Human Powered Health). They had a nine-second advantage at the three-kilometre mark but were caught with 2.2km to go.
Everybody was now fighting for position going into the final 500-metre climb to the finish in Sigüenza. Smulders was leading the group with her teammate Ingvild Gåskjenn on her wheel, but Jackson brought her teammate Faulkner to the front through the left-hand turn into the climb.
Faulkner accelerated up the climb, Vos and Longo Borghini passed Gåskjenn to take the US rider’s wheel, and Vos dispatched the other two riders with another acceleration to take the stage.
Sprinting up the finishing climb, Kastelijn and Cadzow limited their losses to 44 and 55 seconds, respectively, both dropping down one spot in the general classification.
Results
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