Annemiek van Vleuten seals overall victory at La Madrid Challenge as Elisa Balsamo wins final stage

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) won La Madrid Challenge 2022 to add to wins at the Giro Donne and the Tour de France Femmes earlier in the year. Elisa Balsamo (Trek–Segafredo) won the final stage after being led out by Elisa Longo-Borghini. Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) in second and Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ), third, made up the podium on the day.

Ad The last stage of five was a simple 96km, 17-lap criterium around the centre of Spain's capital. With no mountains points on offer to prevent Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) from retaining the polka dot jersey, and the maillot rojo of overall winner all but sewn up, the stage win and the points competition were all there was to play for. Ceratizit Challenge by La VueltaPersico wins Stage 4 at Madrid Challenge18 HOURS AGO Trek-Segafredo were determined to play for keeps, however.

The American team were in control for most of the stage. Though they allowed a group of four riders to spend a couple of hours in the sun, Carlijn Achtereekte (Jumbo Visma), Sara Poidevin (EF Education-Tibco SVB), Sandra Alonso (Ceratizit-WNT) and Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health) were never going to be allowed much room for maneuvre. A lid was placed firmly on the gap when it reached one minute and held steady for the next 60km.

The four intermediate sprints only offered bonus seconds — of little interest or use to the breakaway riders, all of whom were a long way down in the general classification. Between kilometres 60 and 80 the time between groups began to fall rapidly, as Shirin Van Anrooij and Amalie Dideriksen shared the work to ensure the bunch sprint outcome for their Trek-Segafredo team-mate. Movistar and SD Worx also spent short spells on the front.