Alison Jackson sprinted to victory on a crash-marred stage two of the Vuelta Femenina after a perfect leadout from Kristen Faulkner.
The EF Education-Cannondale rider out-powered Blanka Kata Vas (SD Worx-Protime) and Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) in Moncófar to take the win, with Vas moving into the red leader's jersey as a result of bonus seconds.
A pair of crashes inside of 3km to go affected the rhythm of the race, but Jackson had the strength to triumph out of a reduced bunch. It is the third Women's WorldTour victory of the Canadian's career, her first since her famous victory at Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2023.
The day looked set to be one for Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), especially once the fastest rider in the bunch, Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) had been distanced on the day's sole categorised climb. However, with crashes at the front of the bunch interrupting proceedings, EF were able to put the perfect leadout together for Jackson.
"I came in with a real fire to win this," Jackson said post-race. "Even starting with the rain, you take a mentality that you have to be real careful. I was in the right position at the right time with teammates to take care of me, right from the beginning. I just made the right decisions, crashes were happening and I kept being safe. In the final, it was due to my teammates.
"My teammate Kristen went full gas with 500m and she is so strong, I knew that no-one could come around. I could choose to sprint when I wanted to, and it’s unbelievable to come away with the win."
"I had a bit of a disappointing spring…" she continued. "You can only control what you can control. The team has been coming together more and more as the season goes. Coming into the Vuelta, I just had a lot of fire, and I was going to do anything it took to do my best, and get this win. The team believed in me, from staff to riders, and I took it to heart. It’s another great thing to put on the resumé."
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The Vuelta continues with another lumpy stage, but with a flat finish on Tuesday, before the real climbing begins later this week.
How it happened
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage two of La Vuelta Femenina, the first proper road stage, looked set for a bunch finish in Moncófar, but with a third-category climb 40km from the finish, it had the potential to be more explosive than a flat day out.
A break of six riders - Valerie Demey (VolkerWessels), Audret De Keersmaeker (Lotto Dsnty), Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health), Marine Allione (Winspace), Angela Oro (Bepink-Bongioanni) and Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) - went clear with around 100km to go, with their lead building up to over two minutes. However, they were all finally caught with 41km to go.
On the third-category climb of Puerto de L'Oronet, the race picked up speed, with Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) among those dropped by the lead group. Visma-Lease a Bike were putting the power on the front to make the stage hard, and deliver Marianne Vos to the right position.
However, a pair of crashes as the race went past 3km to go severely impacted the stage. A sudden downpour made the roads slippery and caused the incidents.
Both happened at the front of the bunch, dramatically interrupting the flow of the run to the finish. The first appeared to happen as the race went underneath the 3km-to-go banner, which saw Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek), Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) and Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike), among others, hit the deck.
A second, on a roundabout with 2.2km to go, was much more impactful, seeing almost a dozen riders slide out on, with some flipping over the barrier on the edge of the road.
Jelena Erić (Movistar) emerged through the chaos off the front, but was soon caught by what was left of the peloton. A well-judged leadout from Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) then put her teammate Alison Jackson in the perfect position to power to victory.
1. Alison Jackson (Can) EF Education-Cannondale, in 2:51:03
2. Blanka Kata Vas (Hun) SD Worx-Protime
3. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) UAE Team ADQ
4. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM
5. Ingvild Gåskjenn (Nor) Liv AlUla Jayco
6. Giorgia Vettorello (Ita) Roland
7. Silke Smulders (Ned) Liv AlUla Jayco
8. Flora Perkins (GBr) Fenix-Deceuninck
9. Amber Kraak (Ned) FDJ-Suez
10. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF Education-Cannondale, all at same time
General classification after stage 2
1. Blanka Kata Vas (Hun) SD Worx-Protime, in 3:10:14
2. Alison Jackson (Can) EF Education-Cannondale, +8s
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +9s
4. Eva van Agt (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
5. Sophie von Berswordt (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
6. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
7. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
8. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Lidl-Trek
9. Gaia Realini (Ita) Lidl-Trek
10. Brodie Chapman (Aus) Lidl-Trek, all at same time
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Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
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