Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) was the strongest on the first mountaintop finish of La Vuelta Femenina, winning stage 5 to the Mirador de Peñas Llanas and taking the red jersey of the overall leader.
Moving to the front of the group of favourites at the two-kilometre mark, Vollering's pace saw rider after rider lose contact until only Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM) remained.
Van Vleuten tried to attack on the steepest part of the climb with 300 metres to go, but Vollering countered the move and powered on, leaving the world champion behind on the last 150 metres to win the stage.
Three seconds later, Van Vleuten finished second, and Bauernfeind came in nine seconds down.
"Puh, today was a hard day. It looked really good for us [after the Puerto de Navafría], we were still with three in the group, but then Niamh crashed, unfortunately. She was super strong, and we really hoped that she could come back. I was just really keen to win this one for Niamh," said Vollering after the stage.
The 26-year-old Dutch woman took control of the race in the final, shredding the group of favourites with her steady tempo.
"I thought I would just go my own pace because I know I can keep a hard pace for a long time, and I hoped to drop as many as possible as soon as possible. In the end, we were still three. Annemiek tried to go over me, and I was like, 'OK, now is the time to give it my all'. At first, I thought, 'Ooh, this is maybe a bit too early, it's still a long way', but in the end, it was enough," she described the last kilometres.
In the general classification, Vollering now leads with a five-second advantage over Van Vleuten. Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma) in third place is 12 seconds behind.
How it unfolded
An early breakaway of six riders was reeled in on the 11.5-kilometre climb of the Puerto de Navafría, and the first-category climb split the peloton, too. Only about 25 riders remained in front of the race while red jersey Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma), Liane Lippert (Movistar Team), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), and Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) were among those dropped.
At the top of the climb, where Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) extended her lead in the mountain classification, the group with Vos was 2:35 minutes behind. Niewiadoma and Persico later returned to the front group.
At 35km from the finish, Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx) and Ane Santesteban (Team Jayco-AlUla) crashed in the front peloton. While Santesteban quickly got back on her bike and rejoined the group, Fisher-Black needed a bike change, losing additional time and never making it back.
Movistar Team, Team SD Worx, and EF Education-TIBCO-SVB all joined Team Jumbo-Visma in trying to close the gap between the two big groups, but they could only bring the gap down to 30 seconds before the five-kilometre climb to the Mirador de Peñas Llanas began.
Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) led the group up the first kilometres of the climb, steadily reducing the group to about 15 riders. Vollering took over from the Italian two kilometres from the finish and increased the pace even further.
At the flamme rouge, only Van Vleuten and Bauernfeind remained with Vollering; Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) and Realini were a few seconds behind. Muzic managed to come back with 700 metres to go but lost contact again when the last steep 500-metre ramp began.
Van Vleuten took over from Vollering and tried to shake off the other two riders, but Vollering countered the attack and pushed on to the finish, winning the stage three seconds ahead of Van Vleuten and nine ahead of Bauernfeind.
Results
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