Marianne Vos wins uphill sprint on stage 7 of La Vuelta Femenina after crosswinds split the race

Marianne Vos took her second stage victory of the 2024 Vuelta Femenina on stage 7, as the Visma-Lease a Bike rider won the uphill sprint to the line in the city of Sigüenza ahead of Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek). Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) finished in fourth place on the stage to maintain her overall lead in the general classification ahead of the final stage.

After taking the victory on stage 3, Vos briefly went into the overall lead of the race on stage 4 and took the lead in the points classification on stage 5. She has held the lead in that classification ever since and her win on stage 7 practically guarantees that she will be wearing the maillot verde on the final podium.

Speaking after the stage in her post-race interview, Vos said “we really wanted to try and go for the stage win today. That’s the reason why the team controlled it and of course when they do so much you want to try to make it in the finale. Riejanne Markus and I were in this final break when the échelons started and that was a good situation, but also hard to control, so it was a little bit stressful. When we entered the final kilometre, we just tried to stay in the best possible position and go for it”.

On the crosswinds that defined the stage, the Dutch rider said “it was open and there was wind, so there was this possibility and the last few days we did not have the wind from the right side. But today it was just open with crosswinds, so we had échelons again”.

The wind conditions drastically influenced the way in which the stage played out, as with around 40km to go the riders entered a windy section of the course and the race began to split a few kilometres later as échelons began to form. All of the main contenders made the front group, with all of the major teams well-represented apart from Movistar, who missed the split entirely.

HOW IT HAPPENED

At the start of the day, there were two attempts to form a breakaway, but both moves failed to materialise. It was not until a four rider group with Anna Kiesenhofer (Roland), Veronica Ewers (EF Education-Cannondale), Yuliia Biriukova (Human Powered Health) and Laura Tomasi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) went off the front with 114km to go that a breakaway began to establish itself.

They were then joined by a three rider group containing Angela Oro (Bepink-Bongioanni), Quinty Schoens (VolkerWessels) and Stina Kagevi (Coop-Repsol) with around 108km to go. Their gap fluctuated somewhat for around 25km, before it seemed that the peloton were content with the selection at the front of the race, as their advantage began to grow.

However, their gap began to decrease again before they were eventually caught with 66km to go. Kiesenhofer then attacked again a kilometre later and she was eventually joined by eight other riders and with 48km to go they had around a gap of a minute over the peloton.

After the intermediate sprint in Barahona, the riders entered the crosswind section with splits beginning to form in the peloton and the gap to the breakaway decreasing. The leaders were then caught by the main group with around 38km to go.

The split in the peloton had caused a group of 29 riders to get a gap at the front of the race, as the race began to splinter. With a gap of over a minute on the second group on the road with 25km to go, all of the main teams were represented apart from Movistar, who were forced to chase in the peloton behind.

Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) then suffered a crash a few kilometres later, which caused her to lose a significant amount of time on the stage that meant she dropped down several positions in the overall standings.

In the final 10km of the stage, multiple attacks went off the front of the race, as riders made a late attempt to go clear and take the stage win. A group of four riders including Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) and Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) went away with around 4km to go and they managed to get a gap of around ten seconds.

They were brought back with 2.3km to go, which meant that the stage would come down to the final sprint on the uphill finish. As they hit the slopes of the climb to the line, Kristen Faulkner led out the group as she opened up her sprint early with Elisa Longo Borghini on her wheel.

With 150 metres to go, Marianne Vos opened up her sprint and nobody could get anywhere near her, as she immediately distanced those behind her. After a look back to see the riders suffering in her wake, she sat up to celebrate her second stage victory of the race. Faulkner managed to hold off Longo Borghini for second place, whilst those behind trickled across the line in ones and twos.

RESULTS: LA VUELTA FEMENINA, STAGE SIX, SAN ESTEBAN DE GORMAZ › SIGÜENZA (138.6KM) 

1. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 3:27:56
2. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF Education-Cannondale, +2s
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek
4. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
5. Ingvild Gåskjenn (Nor) Liv AlUla Jayco
6. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) SD Worx-Protime
7. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
8. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, all at same time
9. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +8s
10. Eline Jansen (Ned) VolkerWessels, +10s

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE SIX 

1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 20:47:59
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +52s
3. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:14
4. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL. +1:48
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) SD Worx-Protime, +2:16
6. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +2:42
7. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF Education-Cannondale, +3:23
8. Marlen Reusser (Sui) SD Worx-Protime, +3:24
9. Ricarda Bauerfind (Ger) Canyon-SRAM, +3:27
10. Yara Kastelijn (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, + 4:07