Emakumeen Bira: Stultiens takes opening stage

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Sabrina Stultiens (WaowDeals) took a solo victory in the streets of Legazpi on the opening stage of the Emakumeen Bira. Having escaped with three others on the steepest climb of the day with 21 km to go, Stultiens went solo in the final as the peloton was closing in. Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) sprinted to second, Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) rounded out the podium.

The 108-kilometre stage consisted of three different loops around Legazpi and featured three classified climbs, but the route was almost continually up-and-down, especially in the second half of the stage. Two sprints offering bonus seconds were placed at the top of short, steep climbs, including the one-kilometre, 12 % ascent to Atagoiti (nicknamed Kirtenberg) cresting 21.1 km from the finish.

The race stayed together for a long time as no attacks got away on the first loop before passing the finish line in Legazpi for the first time after 52 km. The first classified climb after 56 km, and especially the long descent afterwards, split up the peloton a bit. Lorena Llamas (Movistar Team) and Gracie Elvin (Mitchelton Scott) tried to attack shortly after the descent, but were quickly brought back by a reduced peloton.

The pre-race favourites came to the fore on the Alto de Liernia climb that featured the first bonus sprint at the top. Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton Scott), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo Bigla), and Malgorzata Jasinska (Movistar Team) took the bonus seconds, but the climb didn't open any gaps.

Crossing the finish line with 23km to go, many riders were still in the peloton, but the Kirtenberg climb to Atagoiti would soon change this. Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) led Moolman-Pasio over the top with Stultiens a few seconds back and van Vleuten just behind.

Van Vleuten and Stultiens bridged to the front on the technical descent. Once the downhill section was over, van Vleuten attacked and got a small gap of no more than eight seconds on the others. The chasing peloton was 40 seconds down at this point. Van Vleuten held her advantage for a couple of kilometres, but eventually van der Breggen, Moolman-Pasio, and Stultiens caught her again with about seven kilometres to go.

The four riders extended their lead over the peloton to a whole minute at the four-kilometre mark, but then the tactical games started. Van Vleuten and van der Breggen in particular were looking at each other, and the peloton made up ground quickly.

On the final kilometre, Stultiens went all-out and made her move. While the three others were caught by the peloton, the WaowDeals rider kept a 17-second lead all the way to the finish and could celebrate a solo victory. Lisa Brennauer won the sprint for second ahead of Giorgia Bronzini and van der Breggen.

With bonus seconds, Stultiens now has a 22-second advantage over Brennauer going into tomorrow's important ITT, 26.6 km from Agurain to Vitoria-Gasteiz.

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