The last day for the sprinters delivered a chaotic finale at La Vuelta España Femenina.
Mischa Bredewold gave SD Worx-Protime another victory on stage 5, one day after teammate Lotte Kopecky won stage 4.
The 119.6-km route from León to Astorga looked straightforward on paper, but strong winds and nervous racing kept the peloton on edge throughout the afternoon. An early breakaway featuring Aniek van Alphen, Sara Martín, Marina Garau, Idoia Eraso and Alice Coutinho hovered just ahead of the bunch for much of the stage before the sprinters’ teams finally took control inside the final 10 kilometres.
Rain in Spain
Some wet stuff added another layer of danger to an already tense finale, and a high-speed crash with roughly two kilometres remaining split the field. In the reduced sprint, Bredewold proved fastest, continuing SD Worx-Protime’s dominance of the race and capping another successful day for the Dutch squad.
Victoria’s Sarah Van Dam was a bit behind in 48th, and was caught behind some of the chaos in the finale with the crash. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider still sits fifth overall, but she won’t be going for any sprints for the next few days. The final two days of racing are all about the climbs.
Stage 6 is from Gijón/Xixón to Les Praeres. Nava (106.5 km) and has a summit finish, it’s the first real test for the GC riders. But forget about that lump. Stage 7 is a legbreaker, finishing on the dreaded (unless you love climbing) Angliru. The final 7 km of this brutal ascent averages 13.4 per cent. Will Van Dam be working for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot? The French rider hasn’t seemed quite as dominant as earlier.
Perhaps Visma will do their best to keep the Canadian in the GC hunt. She lost a few seconds due to bonuses today, but is only 28 seconds behind the leader, Kopecky. The overall is going to change bigtime, however, and Kopecky will most certainly not be leading after tomorrow.
One rider to watch out for is Polish ace Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney. The next two days seem tailor-made for the former Tour de France Femmes winner.
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