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La Vuelta Femenina: van Vleuten and Vollering throw down on Covadonga

An epic scrap on the final and queen stage

World champion Annemiek van Vleuten was able to withstand an assault from Demi Vollering on the final and queen stage of La Vuelta Femenina to defend her title in the first of three Women’s WorldTour “Grand Tours”. It was van Vleuten’s first victory of the season and a natural hat trick of La Vuelta Femenina championships. Olivia Baril was top Canadian at 28th, which saw her stay in the GC top-20.

The Race So Far

Jumbo-Visma was tops in the team time trial opener, Brit Anna Henderson pulling on the leader’s jersey. The next day Henderson’s teammate Marianne Vos assumed the race lead when she came runner-up to Charlotte Kool in a bunch sprint. Vos kept adding to her GC gap with two consecutive wins. Stage 5 was the first uphill finish, and it was atop Mirador de Peñas Llanas that Vollering beat van Vleuten to rise to the top of the table.

With winds lashing the peloton in Stage 6, the field split at the 30 km mark and van Vleuten led a steadily shrinking group towards Laredo, where it took the judges a long time to award Gaia Realini the day’s flowers.

Van Vleuten thus went into the final day with 1:11 over WorldTour leader Vollering. Canada’s Olivia Baril had steadily risen in the GC ranks until she was sixth; up until Sunday her best WorldTour stage race placing had been ninth in last season’s Tour de Suisse. Sara Poidevin, Magdeleine Vallieres, Simone Boilard and Adele Normand were the other Canadians in Spain.

The Course
The queen stage was 93.7 km with a Cat. 2 right in the middle and a sting in the tail via Lagos la Covadonga. This 13.3-km beast was 6.8 percent and had three steps: 8 km of 9 percent, 1.3 km of 8.3 percent and 1.5 km of 8.4 percent. The finish line was 2 km past the Covadonga’s crest.

A trio of fugitives was brought to heel before the Cat. 2 Collado Moandi, where the peloton split. Van Vleuten, Vollering and Realini were all in the front group but Baril was not. Marlen Reusser and Katarzyna Niewiadoma bolted on the descent and pulled out a minute’s lead. In the 30-strong group behind, Movistar had five riders including van Vleuten to chase.

The fugitive duo was dispatched before the opening slopes of Covadonga. There, Movistar’s Liane Lippert led the group, which immediately shrank as the grades bit. SD Worx took over as the great decanting continued. With 9.1 km to go in the stage Vollering took off, van Vleuten, Realini and the wonderfully named Évita Muzic able to go with her.

Muzic was the first to pop as Vollering lifted the pace.

Vollering, Realini and van Vleuten with Muzic in the background.

Realini put down the pace with 6 km remaining, and van Vleuten began to struggle. With 5.3 km to race, van Vleuten was distanced. Vollering took over the front. At that point the riders hit the first of three slightly downhill sections. With 4.3 to go and the mists gathering around them, the gap back to the world champion was 20 seconds. Vollering was running out of road to snatch the win.

Hungry for the bonus seconds, Vollering dumped Realini and raised her arms at the line 10 seconds ahead of the Italian. Van Vleuten finished 56 seconds back and won the race by nine seconds.

2023 La Vuelta Femenina
1) Demi Vollering (The Netherlands/SD Worx) 2:43:02
2) Gaia Realini (Italy/Trek-Segafredo) +0:11
3) Annemiek van Vleuten (The Netherlands/Movistar) +0:56
28) Olivia Baril (Canada/UAE-ADQ) +12:37

2023 La Vuelta Femenina Final GC
1) Annemiek van Vleuten (The Netherlands/Movistar) 19:00:11
2) Demi Vollering (The Netherlands/SD Worx) +0:09
3) Gaia Realini (Italy/Trek-Segafredo) +2:41
19) Olivia Baril (Canada/UAE-ADQ) +14:03