Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) retained her Vuelta España Feminina title with a final show of force on the 'queen' stage to the summit of the Alto de Cotobello, where an attack in the final kilometre carried her to victory ahead of Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), who also finished in that order on GC. Dropped when Vollering made that winning attack, Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) was fourth on the day and overall.
Vollering’s success came after a concerted effort by Van der Breggen to ride everyone off her wheel almost from the foot of the 10km long Cotobello. “Anna was trying to drop us all by going hard and accelerating from time to time. I knew that I had a little something left so I waited for the most difficult section coming into the finish to go for the victory,” said Vollering.
“I didn’t want to risk the overall classification by simply focusing on the stage. To do both, I just had to wait, which wasn’t so easy because I really wanted to attack. But, finally, I managed to make the difference in the last kilometre.”
The pace had been frenetic from the off. Close to 60km passed before the first break went clear, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto’s Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka going clear on her own, before being joined by Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the second-category Colladona pass.
On the first-category ascent of the Colladiella that followed, De Vries dropped her breakaway companion and still led at the summit, but her advantages was just a dozen seconds on the group containing race leader Vollering and the other principal GC contenders.
De Vries was reeled soon after on the damp and treacherous descent from the pass, where Vollering’s FDJ-Suez teammate Evita Muzic and Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco) opened up a gap. The breakaway pair built up a lead of almost 90 seconds, but this had been trimmed back to half that going onto the race’s final climb of the Cotobello.
García and Muzic held on until 8km from home, when van der Breggen powered by, the rest of the favourites lined out behind, her pace quickly whittling down the group. When the Dutch rider finally eased off, first Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike), then Kerbaol and, finally, Muzic attempted to go solo, but each attack was nullified.
With 6km remaining, van der Breggen went back to the front and upped the tempo considerably, shattering the group once again, which was quickly reduced to the top four riders on GC. The latter three were content for van der Breggen to set the pace, until 1.5km from the line, Vollering tested out her rivals with a brief surge.
A kilometre out, she went again, Kerbaol the immediate victim of this acceleration. As the race leader flew off, Van der Breggen and Reusser were left to focus on their duel for second place on the day and in the overall standings, this contest soon tipping Reusser’s way.
Vollering was quick to praise the support of her team, which also finished with Juliette Labous (5th) and Muzic (10th) in the top 10. “On the mountain stages we were so strong and always in control. I had really good legs and I’m very pleased with the performance of the whole team,” she said.
RESULTS
LA VUELTA FEMENINA 2025 STAGE SEVEN: LA ROBLA > ALTO DE COTOBELLO (152.6KM)
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-Suez, in 4:23:34
2. Marlen Reusser (Swi) Movistar, +11s
3. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +25s
4. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly, +35s
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek, +56s
6. Juliette Labous (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +1:05
7. Monica Trinca Colonel (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco, +1:23
8. Evita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +1:42
9. Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1:52
10. Nienke Vinka (Team Picnic PostNL), +2:06
FINAL GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-Suez, in 19:41:32
2. Marlen Reusser (Swi) Movistar, +1:01
3. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +1:16
4. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Educartion-Oatly, +2:34
5. Juliette Labous (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +3:24
6. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek, +3:25
7. Monica Trinca Colonel (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco, +4:07
8. Yara Kastelijn (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +5:20
9. Nienke Vinka (Team Picnic PostNL), +5:40
10. Evita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +5:41
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