Demi Vollering gives final victory in Vuelta Femenina extra shine with stage victory in the final stage: “Good start for the rest of the season”

The eighth and final stage was barely 89.5 kilometers, but perhaps the most difficult of them all. With the Puerto de la Morcuera (13.2 kilometers at 6.4 percent) and the climb to Valdesqui (12.4 kilometers at 4.9 percent), two first category mountains had to be bridged. Once again, classification leader Demi Vollering, who had three more competitors with the French Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL), compatriot Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) and especially the Italian champion Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek). , which arrived within two minutes.

The three closest attackers with green jersey Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), the British Abi Smith (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and the Australian Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek) sent a pawn in the early flight for SD Worx-ProTime , Vollering’s team, to make you sweat.

Mountain king Karlijn Swinkels (UAE ADQ) was also part of the escape and decided to attack twenty kilometers from the end. The rest of the leading group was swallowed up by Marlen Reusser and Niamh Fisher-Black, who did some work for leader Vollering.

Swinkels collapsed a bit on the final climb, allowing the favorites to fight for the stage victory again. Vollering rode away from her competitors with just under six kilometers to go, while Longo Borghini fell through the ice. The Dutch champion eventually finished ahead of the French Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez), who had won the sixth stage, and Markus, who just passed Longo Borghini for second place in the final rankings.

No Belgian women finished in the top ten of the final rankings. World champion Lotte Kopecky did not start the Vuelta, climber Justine Ghekiere gave up earlier this week. The 27-year-old Vollering finished second in the Vuelta Femenina last year. The final victory then went to another Dutchwoman, the now no longer active Annemiek van Vleuten.

“Good start for the rest of the season”

“I was a bit nervous: I thought the final climb wouldn’t be super tough. There was a headwind, and it wasn’t very steep,” the final laureate admitted afterwards.

Still, Vollering found her moment: “There was a part where we had the wind at our backs, and there I thought: ‘I have to attack, make sure I have a gap’. So that the rest would also be in the wind when chasing. I could open a gap, widen it, and stay ahead. I am very happy that I can also win this stage. It’s very nice to end like this.”

Vollering left behind a poor spring without victories in the Vuelta. “This is really beautiful,” she enjoyed. “A good start, I hope. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season. I hope I can complete a few more very nice stage races.” Vollering will compete this summer in the women’s Tour, which she won last year.

Rash

Final ranking