Perfectly Red day for Demi Vollering
May 2 nd 2024 - 17:43 [GMT + 2]
She first put everyone in the red, and then she grabbed the Red jersey. Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) took the overall lead of La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es by storm in the first mountain stage of the race, torturing her rivals in the devilish steep final climb to Jaca’s Fuerte Rapitán until powering away solo with 800 meters to go to collect her first victory of the season. Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) were her closest challengers, crossing the finish line 28” in arrears. Vollering becomes the overall leader with a 31” advantage on Longo Borghini and 53” on Visma | Lease a Bike’s Riejanne Markus. A new uphill finish awaits the riders on Friday – this time, atop the Laguna Negra de Vinuesa.
130 riders took the start in the 5th stage of La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es, which covered 113,9 kilometres between Huesca and Jaca’s Fuerte Rapitán, at 14:15. The peloton initially rode into a remarkable headwind, and breakaway attempts by Stine Dale (Coop-Repsol), Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) or Antri Christoforou (Human Powered Health) failed to prosper. Tereza Neumanova (UAE Team ADQ) and Elena Hartmann (Roland) quit the race during the stage – the former because of health issues, the latter due to a crash halfway through the course.
A first climb to stretch things out
At kilometre 59, Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi’s Lourdes Oyarbide attacked and got a small gap on the bunch, clocked at 30” at the foot of the 18,5-kilometre-long Alto del Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña (cat 2, km 85,5). She was caught 72 kilometres into the race by a peloton on which FDJ-SUEZ and Visma | Lease a Bike took the reins, whittling it down to 60 riders. An attack from Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM) strung things out ahead of the summit, crested in first position by Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) to secure one more day leading the Mountains classification.
Vollering crushes her competitors
The descent to Jaca (IS, km 108,6) was an eventful one, with a crash taking Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) out of contention and a push by Aniek van Alphen (Fenix-Deceuninck) creating several splits. Swinkels took off solo with 12 kilometres to go as the GC favourites came back together to create a 50-strong main group behind her. The Dutch rider held a 20” advantage on her chasers at the intermediate sprint, yet was caught at the foot of Jaca’s Fuerte Rapitán climb, with 3,4 kilometers to go. Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) quickly reached the head of the race, setting a strong pace that dropped her GC rivals one by one. Only Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) kept up with her pace under the one-kilometre-to-go banner, and were forced to surrender 200 metres later.
