Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) took second place on the mythical climb of the Alto de L'Angliru to win the general classification on the final day of La Vuelta Femenina as Petra Stiasny (Human Powered Health) soloed home to win stage 7.
Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-Suez) outsprinted Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike) for third place, 43 seconds down. Overnight GC leader Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) struggled on the climb and finished 59 seconds behind in fifth place, losing the red jersey to Blasi on the final stage.
From the early breakaway, Liane Lippert (Movistar) lasted the longest on the lower slopes of L’Angliru, staying in the lead until 5.4km to go, well into the steepest part of the climb. Stiasny had taken the lead of the group of favourites 6.2km from the finish, and when she passed Lippert, only Berthet, Blasi, Van der Breggen, and Bunel were still on her wheel.
“It was crazy for us today. It was full of attacks, and we’ve been racing for six days. I was not really feeling at my best, but the team did an amazing job, and I can only be grateful for them, really,” said Blasi.
Despite finished runner-up on the stage, Blasi suffered on L’Angliru.
“The best thing I could do was just not think about it. I knew it would be about 50 minutes, and already 5 minutes into the climb, I was on the limit. So I said, ‘just keep going, keep your pace, as long as you can go like this, you stay’. If I had gone over my limit, I would have stopped [pushing], but then I started seeing Anna van der Breggen struggling, and I said ‘let's go for it’,” explained Blasi.
How it unfolded
Covering 132.9km, the final stage was the longest of the race and included three classified climbs ahead of the mythical finishing climb of L’Angliru.
Lidl-Trek tried to split the peloton on the first climb, the Alto de Santo Emiliano, but it was Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) who was first over the top to take the virtual lead in the mountain classification.
After the descent, Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime) broke away and was soon joined by her sister Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek). Lippert eventually bridged across to make it a front group of three.
Their advantage went out to over four minutes atop the Alto de La Tejera with 57.8km to go where Moolman-Pasio squirreled away the last remaining point from the peloton.
The gap came down slowly until Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) began to set the pace on the second-category Alto del Tenebredo, reducing the breakaway’s advantage to only 1:15 minutes at the top, 35.2km from the finish. Moolman-Pasio again took the remaining mountain points to bring her total to 22, but the South African climber would eventually finish runner-up in the mountain classification after being dropped early on L’Angliru.
With the peloton not pushing on after the climb, the escapees could extend their advantage again, reaching 2:36 minutes at the 20km mark. At the intermediate sprint in Las Mazas, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) stayed on the wheel of Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) to make sure the German champion would not pass her in the points classification. Kopecky succeeded and would win the green jersey in the end.
When the finishing climb started, the break was still 1:40 minutes up the road. Riejanne Markus immediately dropped back, and less than a kilometre later, Lippert also dropped Femke Markus to go solo.
In the peloton, Koch did one last turn at the front, then Uno-X Mobility’s Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset took over with her teammate Katrine Aalerud in her wheel. Lippert started the steep final 7.4km of the climb still 1:15 minutes ahead, but when Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) started setting the pace at the front of a peloton of 20 to 25 riders, that gap began to melt quickly.
When Stiasny relieved Realini at the front of the group, only Blasi, Valentina Cavallar (SD Worx-Protime), Van der Breggen, Berthet, Bunel, and Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) were still hanging on, with Maud Oudeman (Visma-Lease a Bike), Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Premier Tech), Évita Muzic (FDJ United-Suez), and Nienke Vinke (SD Worx-Protime) struggling and losing ground.
Soon, only Cavallar, Blasi, Berthet, Van der Breggen, and Bunel remained with Stiasny, and Cavallar was dropped not long after the group passed Lippert.
Bunel’s acceleration put Van der Breggen into difficulties, and the red jersey soon lost contact with Blasi who was now chasing the Frenchwoman up the steep slopes. Blasi eventually reached Bunel and dropped her to take the lead, but Stiasny steadily reduced the gap to Blasi, going past her on the steeper inside lane of a hairpin turn with just over 2km to go.
Further back, Van der Breggen was struggling and even had to let her teammate Cavallar go, though she would recover towards the end and pass Cavallar again. At the highest point of the climb with about 700 metres to go, Stiasny was 22 seconds ahead of Blasi and kept this advantage on the slight downhill to the finish. Berthet went past Bunel in the descent to take third place, moving up to fifth place overall, but Bunel kept her place on the GC podium and won the white U23 jersey.
Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) managed her effort well to finish eighth on the stage and climb to fourth place overall. On top of the general classification, Blasi also won the mountain classification while SD Worx-Protime won the team classification.
Results
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