Vuelta Femenina: Van Vleuten takes lead, Realini wins stage on photo finish

World road champion Annemiek van Vleuten wrestled over control of the La Vuelta Femenina ahead of the Sunday’s final stage, putting more than a minute into her rival for the red jersey, Demi Vollering, on the bumpy road to Laredo.

After Vollering’s (SD-Worx) statement victory on stage five to take a narrow, five-second lead into La Vuelta’s sixth and penultimate stage, Van Vleuten needed to respond if she wanted to defend her title. The Movistar rider did just that, taking the field apart on the first climb and only narrowly being denied the stage victory by Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) – the Italian’s first victory on the Women’s WorldTour – by a photo finish.

Vollering, 26, spent the majority of the 106-kilometre stage chasing Van Vleuten after an unfortunately-timed comfort break left the SD Worx rider on the wrong side of the crosswinds as Movistar Team went on the attack around the 36km mark. Vollering ultimately saw her advantage on the start line in Castro Urdiales slip away to become a 1min11sec defecity going into the moutaineous stage seven.

Only Realini could stick with Van Vleuten after the 2022 race winner powered away from Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), Juliette Labous (Team DSM) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) just before the intermediate sprint. Credit to Realini, who dug deep to reel in Van Vleuten, before taking the stage win by the narrowest of margins in a leg-sapping sprint finish. The result was changed twice before the judges settled on the Trek rider as the winner, but the photo on the line showed the correct call was eventually made.

Movistar’s decision to attack while Vollering was taking a comfort break did attract some scrutiny post-stage, but Van Vleuten insisted the team’s plan to make the move