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Marianne Vos (Group Jumbo-Visma) has continued her successful methods in Spain, successful her second consecutive stage of La Vuelta Femenina. Carrying the purple chief’s jersey, Vos was by no means in hassle on the climbs of stage 4, staying within the peloton and letting others shut the gaps when the assaults flew on the ultimate climb of the day and the descent that adopted.
Within the quick downhill dash into Guadalajara, Vos launched her dash completely to win the stage forward of Emma Norsgaard (Movistar). Marlen Reusser (Group SD Worx) took third forward of her teammate Blanka Vas.
“It was actually nervous in the present day. With the climbs arising, all of the groups wished to be in entrance, and all of the GC riders wished to be there if a transfer would go. The breakaway bought fairly an enormous hole, then we took management, and the women did a extremely good job of bringing that down. From then on, it was making an attempt to remain in entrance and accountable for the group. I wish to thank my crew for doing that so effectively and being there with me within the ultimate,” Vos stated.
On the plateau after the Alto de Horche, GC favourites Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Group), and Demi Vollering (Group SD Worx) have been among the many riders who attacked to anticipate a bunch dash, however their strikes got here to naught.
“If these two go, you realize it’s severe. However there was loads of headwind that wasn’t of their favour, and we nonetheless had Amber Kraak and Riejanne Markus there. Within the ultimate, the assault of Reusser was actually sturdy, and Dygert reacted on that,” Vos described the final kilometres.
With time bonifications for her stage victory, Vos prolonged her GC lead and is now 25 seconds forward of Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) earlier than the primary mountaintop end of the Vuelta Femenina on stage 5.
The way it unfolded
The break of the day shaped 44 km into the 133.1-kilometre stage and included Maryna Varenyk (Eneicat-CMTeam-Seguros Deportivos), Olympic Champion Anna Kiesenhofer (Israel-Premier Tech-Roland), Patricia Ortega (Massi-Tactic), and Tota Magalhães (Bizkaia Durango). Nora Jenčušová (BePink) tried to bridge to the entrance group on her personal however by no means succeeded.
The break had a most benefit of three minutes, 45 seconds, however a succession of uncategorised climbs noticed first Varenyk, then Kiesenhofer and eventually Ortega be dropped, leaving solely Magalhães within the lead whereas Group Jumbo-Visma steadily decreased the hole.
Andrea Alzate (Eneicat-CMTeam-Seguros Deportivos) attacked from the peloton and bridged to the entrance, taking Kiesenhofer along with her, however the hole was all the way down to lower than 30 seconds by now, and so they have been caught quickly after.
Georgia Williams (EF Schooling-TIBCO-SVB) and Aranza Villalón (Eneicat-CMTeam-Seguros Deportivos) have been the subsequent to get away 33 km from the end. Silke Smulders (Liv Racing TeqFind), Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Group Coop-Hitec Merchandise) and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM) bridged to the entrance duo, however this new breakaway was reeled in simply earlier than the beginning of the Alto de Horche.
Climbing at a median 4.9 % for 4 kilometres and considerably steeper close to the highest, the climb noticed Movistar take duty for the tempo, making an attempt to cut back the dimensions of the group. Amongst others, Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ) was dropped midway up the climb.
Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) took the mountain factors within the small city of Horche, and Van Vleuten attacked proper after the mountain dash, drawing Vollering out from the pack as effectively. Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind) bridged simply earlier than the remainder of the peloton caught as much as the attackers, and Liane Lippert (Movistar Group), Chabbey, Amber Kraak (Group Jumbo-Visma) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Group SD Worx) instantly launched a counter-attack.
This transfer was simply as shortlived because the one which adopted the place Van Vleuten and Vollering have been joined by Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Riejanne Markus (Group Jumbo-Visma). After a brief lull, Canyon-SRAM’s Ricarda Bauernfeind attacked however didn’t get away – as a substitute, Lippert countered and opened up a niche into the quick descent in the direction of the end.
Vollering went on a solo downhill chase, catching the German champion, however they have been in flip reeled in by the decreased peloton with just below three kilometres to go.
Reusser made a late try by means of a roundabout 500 metres from the end, however Dygert closed the hole with 300 metres to go. Vos launched her dash quickly afterwards with Norsgaard and Vas in her slipstream. Reusser narrowly held on to 3rd place whereas Vos beat Norsgaard for the stage by a motorbike size.
Outcomes
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