Demi Vollering has put herself in good position to win two consecutive Women’s Grand Tours, triumphing on the summit finish of Thursday’s fifth stage, what might well be the queen stage of Vuelta España Femenina. She simply rode her rivals off her wheel in the final 2 km and took over the race lead from Marianne Vos. Vollering leads Elisa Longo Borghini by 31 seconds. Olivia Baril was the top Canadian on the day and is the top Canuck in the GC.
The GC Situation Overnight
Wednesday, played out on a course that ran gradually downhill all day, turned out to be key one for the Vuelta GC. In crosswind echelons during the first third of 142 km, 19 riders pulled clear of the field and laboured for the rest of the stage to keep its gap. Monday’s winner Alison Jackson, Tuesday’s victor Vos, red jersey Kata Blanka Vas, Longo Borghini and last year’s runner-up Vollering were among the 19. American Kristin Faulkner was in there too, and she earned the day’s flowers, while Vos took over the race lead from Vas. Only 14 riders were within 2:00 of Vos on GC.
The Course
It was time for the mountains, the first of two consecutive summit finish stages. After a long, gradual Cat. 2 cresting 29 km from the finish line, the riders tackled summit finish climb Fuerte de Rapitán, 3.2 km of 8.1 percent.
😏 Do you like the profile of today’s stage? It’s time for the climbers and GC contenders to show what they’ve got!
🫢 ¿Os gusta el 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙞𝙡 𝙙𝙚 𝙡𝙖 𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙥𝙖 de hoy? ¡Turno para las escaladoras y favoritas!
#LaVueltaFemenina pic.twitter.com/CWkJQM5jXc— La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es (@LaVueltaFem) May 2, 2024
Jackson was one of several riders who tried to break away in the early going. Liv-AlUla-Jayco, Movistar and Lidl-Trek drove towards Cat. 2 Alto del Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña.
Vos and Jackson were in a crash with 58 km remaining. Their bikes were momentarily tangled.
A soloist headed up Alto del Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña with a 30 second lead. With FDJ-Suez on the front, the fugitive was caught and Jackson faded off the back.
A burst from eighth-place Marlen Reusser detached second-place SD Worx-Protime teammate Kata Blanka Vas. Queen of the mountain leader Karlijn Swinkels took maximum points. The long, technical…
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