Vuelta Femenina stage 7: Marianne Vos wins after perfect uphill sprint

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed a second sprint victory in this Vuelta Femenina and the 253rd of her career on a sharp uphill finish in Sigüenza.

Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) backed up her win on stage 4 with second place having led the group up the punchy climb to the finish, but once Vos kicked into gear no-one had the power to stop her claiming another impressive victory.

Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) claimed third, while race leader Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) safely defended her maillot rojo on the penultimate day of this year’s Vuelta Femenina.

“We really wanted to try and go for the stage win today, that’s the reason why the team controlled. When they do so much work you want to make it in the final,” Vos said.

“Riejanne Markus and me were in this final break when the echelons started. It was a good situation but also a little bit hard to control so it was a little bit stressful! When we entered the final kilometre we just tried to stay in the best possible position.”

Vollering came in fourth after her team animated the final few kilometres of the race, staving off other attacks as the rolling terrain pitched upward, with Ingvild Gåskjenn (Liv-AlUla Jayco) fifth.

It was a calmer day in the general classification: no places changed hands but second-placed Longo Borghini reclaimed four seconds on Vollering to leave her 52 seconds behind with one stage to go. Overall third place Markus defended her podium position, rolling in seventh.

How the action unfolded

On a beautiful sunny day in central Spain the peloton tackled a hilly 139km run from San Esteban de Gormaz to Sigüenza, heading westward on the race’s penultimate stage before the final day in Madrid.

The stage profile was largely divided into two halves, with a fairly relaxed, flatter first half before crosswinds and several uncategorised bumps threatened to cause some drama in the second half.

Points classification leader Vos was out-and-out favourite for the predicted sprint finish. But with a sharp kick in the day’s final 500m featuring ramps of up to 11%, it was always unlikely to be a straightforward day in the saddle for the peloton.

The tone for the day was set by several attacks right from the flag drop, each eventually reeled back in, before a group of four riders managed to get clear.

Laura Tomasi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Anna Kiesenhofer (Roland), Yuliia Biriukova (Human Powered Health) and Veronica Ewers (EF Education-Cannondale) made the jump 25km from the start, with the trio of Angela Oro (Bepink-Bongianni), Quinty Schoens (Volkerwessels) and Stina Kagevi (Coop-Repsol) hot on their heels.

Those three bridged across to give the seven-strong group a healthy advantage of around a minute at the 40km mark, with Visma-Lease a Bike leading the peloton’s efforts to control the race.

Speeding along at an average pace of 45.8km/h, the peloton reeled the lead group back in shortly after the stage’s halfway point, but Kiesenhofer refused to stay down and immediately attacked again. She established a 15-second advantage over the peloton with 65km to go, which quickly grew as the peloton’s pace slowed.

Ana Vitória Magalhães (Bepink-Bongioanni) counterattacked shortly after, breaking clear from the peloton and shaving Kiesenhofer’s advantage down to half a minute.

The attacks kept coming, with Flora Perkins (Fenix-Deceuninck), Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels), Anya Louw (AG Insurance-Soudal), Georgie Howe (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and Carolina Vargas (Eneicat-CM Team) jumping across to Magalhães with around 55km of racing still to come. They worked well together to drag out their advantage over the peloton to a minute and a half and quickly hunted down Olympic road race champion Kiesenhofer.

Vargas was distanced but made it back on as they closed down Kiesenhofer, with chasing duo of Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health) and Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) also bridging the gap to form a lead group of nine riders.

Back in the peloton Andrea Alzate (Eneicat-CM Team) crashed hard on the tarmac and abandoned the race.

Upping the ante

A sharp left hand turn at the intermediate sprint in Barahona onto smaller, exposed roads was the critical point of the day’s action. Vargas took the sprint points, followed by Tonetti and Zanardi, with Vos retaining her lead in the green jersey classification.

Strong crosswinds meant splits were likely on the narrower country roads and as the breakaway upped the pressure, dropping Vargas again, the peloton did the same as Markus took to the front.

Her turn blew the bunch apart as the gradients kicked up and the breakaway was swiftly absorbed. All the major players stayed out of trouble at the front, scrabbling for position with SD Worx-Protime setting the pace ahead of one of the day’s tricky uncategorised rises.

A 30-strong group containing most of the GC and stage favourites splintered away from the rest of the peloton, with SD Worx-Protime well represented and Swiss national champion Marlen Reusser driving them on.

They quickly established a 1 minute lead over a second, 20-strong bunch containing Liane Lippert (Movistar), with her team completely missing out on the lead group and desperately trying to bridge the gap.

Kim Cadzow (EF-Education Cannondale) and Molenaar from the original breakaway set off in hot pursuit of the front group, but were reeled back in with just over 25km to go.

Sarah Gigante’s run of bad luck at this Vuelta continued as she crashed before the riders swung into Miño de Medinaceli, quickly getting back on her bike. Her teammate Louw maintained AG Insurance-Soudal’s representation at the front, repeatedly dragging herself back into contention after being dropped, and was rewarded with the most combative rider award.

Despite Movistar’s best efforts the gap between the groups stayed around a minute. Race leader Vollering and teammates Reusser and Blanka Vas appeared to be plotting something as the kilometres ticked down and the final climb approached.

Into the finale

That plotting became apparent when Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) kicked clear with 10km to go as the road rose in Alboreca, with Amber Kraak (FDJ-SUEZ) reacting quickly to jump on her wheel. The attack was quashed quickly but SD Worx-Protime continued to keep the peloton on its toes. Wave after wave of attacks followed: Reusser moved several times, counterattacked by Longo Borghini, with Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) making the most promising move with 5km left to race, but no-one managed to get clear.

The front group stalled enough to let the Movistar-led chase within 30 seconds before piling on the pressure again, but ultimately Lippert’s team had too much ground to make up. With just 4km to go Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale), Gåskjenn, Lily Williams (Human Powered Health), and Bredewold established a fragile 10-second gap over the peloton, but FDJ-SUEZ hauled them back once more.

As the road kicked up to the finish line the peloton stuck together, with Faulkner leading the charge uphill to the line in Sigüenza. But Vos once again proved unstoppable, overtaking with ease with a couple of hundred metres to go and powering to a second sprint victory in this race.