Faulkner victorious in high-speed frenzy
May 1 st 2024 - 17:24 [GMT + 2]
The forecasts spoke of strong crosswinds, and the predictions anticipated a fast stage – as fast as to be the fastest ever in La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es. Early echelons led by SD Worx-Protime made for a frantic, high-speed race from which EF Education-Cannondale’s Kristen Faulkner come away with an excellent victory thanks to a well-timed, powerful attack with 6,5 kilometres to go. The Alaskan cyclist triumphed by 10” on the rest of the front group, led home by Liv-AlUla-Jayco’s Georgia Baker and Visma | Lease a Bike’s Marianne Vos, who in turn took the Red jersey as overall leader from SD Worx’s Blanka Vas. GC-wise, the stage damaged the chances of Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), Mavi García (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) or Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), who were caught in the wrong side of the splits and lost two minutes at the finish line. They have plenty of terrain ahead to gain them back, though, starting with tomorrow’s uphill finish at Jaca’s Fuerte Rapitán.
131 riders took the start in the 4th stage of La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es, which covered 142,3 kilometres between Molina de Aragón and Zaragoza, at 14:01. There were three DNSs: Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek), Justine Ghekeire (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Selene Colombi (Bepink-Bongioanni). The crosswinds expected all over the stage were ideal to create echelons. Attacks from Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Nora Jencusova (Bepink-Bongianni) or Valerie Demey (Volkerwessels) were deemed irrelevant by the self-fulfilled prophesy: 20 kilometres into the stage the pace picked up, the peloton began to split, and by kilometer 28 only 19 riders remained at the head of the race.
SD Worx takes the bull by the horns
In the front echelon, SD Worx-Protime had the upper hand with six riders: Niamh Fisher-Black, Mischa Bredewold, Elena Cecchini, Marlen Reusser, Red jersey wearer Blanka Vas and last year’s runner-up overall Demi Vollering. They were the leading force of a group which also contained Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Kasia Niewiadoma, Maike van der Duin (Canyon//SRAM), Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ), Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Marianne Vos, Riejanne Markus, Sophie von Berswordt (Visma | Lease a Bike), Georgia Baker, Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Kristen Faulkner, Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) and Sheyla Gutiérrez (Movistar Team). The situation behind was chaotic, with riders like Mavi García (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) or Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) trying to fight their way back to the front. A 60-strong chase group was eventually formed, trailing 1’50” behind the head of the race at kilometer 45.
Unsuccessful, disorganized chase
The unclassified climb to the Puerto de Paniza (km 81,4) was both an opportunity and a liability for the chasing group. Eager to link back, several riders dug deep and brought the group as close as just 30” to the head of the race… while causing some damage and reducing the unit down to just 30 riders. The move eventually backfired, as 20 kilometers later the gap was up to 1’25”. Meanwhile, Cecchini was dropped from the front group because of a puncture and Vas struggled to follow its pace, regaining contact thanks to Reusser’s attentions. At Santa Fe (IS, km 130), Vos defeated Vas to put herself in virtual Red jersey position as the front group held a 1’36” advantage on its chaser. A small hill with 6,5 kilometres to go defined the race, with Faulkner taking off and going solo for the win as Reusser failed to hold her wheel and Vos, Vollering and other riders didn’t manage to bring her back. The EF Education rider took the victory with a 10” gap on her former companions, led by Baker, while the chasing group crossed the finish line 2’00” in arrears.
