Atop the final climb of the Itzulia Women, FDJ United-Suez found themselves with three riders in a front group of seven going into the last 10km. It was an excellent position on the Mendizorrotz climb, and then a final descent for stage and GC top spots. But positioning did not lend itself to a full story.
The team could have chosen to support Women’s WorldTour rookie Lauren Dickson for a possible GC victory or go all-in for the stage victory, which had so far eluded them this month. Trying to balance both, they came up short against Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) on the stage and saw Dickson finish third overall.
Stage 1 saw Dickson finish in a select group of five, surprising many and putting time into her more experienced teammates Évita Muzic and Juliette Berthet who started the Basque stage race as the team’s strongest cards on paper.
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Instead, Dickson went into the third and final stage ahead of Muzic and Berthet in the general classification, 17 and 18 seconds up respectively. Dickson was in fourth place overall, 20 seconds behind Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime).
Bredewold had said after stage 2 that “you cannot really focus on both” GC and stage victories, and this proved true for FDJ United-Suez as well who came away from the Basque stage race empty-handed.
On the Mendizorrotz climb, Dickson tried to attack several times but could not get away from the other riders in the group of seven: Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) was adamant that she was not letting anyone go, setting a hard pace almost the entire way up the 6.4km climb.
Together with Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Premier Tech), Włodarczyk, and Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), they crested the top of the climb with a 30-second advantage on Bredewold, who had been dropped early on, climbed at her own pace, and hoped to make up ground on the descent.
In the end, Bredewold succeeded, getting back to the group on the finishing straight to defend her yellow jersey and win the Itzulia Women overall.
Taking into account time bonifications from the intermediate sprints, Bredewold had started the climb 21 seconds ahead of Kastelijn and 25 seconds ahead of Dickson – meaning that with the bonus seconds on offer at the finish (10, 6, and 4 seconds for the top-three), wresting the yellow jersey off the Dutchwoman’s shoulders was not impossible.
With three riders out of seven, FDJ United-Suez ought to have taken charge of the group no matter what, trying to keep the gap to Bredewold as large as possible on the descent instead of launching attacks from Muzic and Dickson. Only exceptionally good descenders can create a gap downhill, and in any case, the flat final 3.5km in the streets of Donostia offered better opportunities for last-minute moves for the stage victory.
As it was, Bredewold went all-out down the hill while there was nobody pushing the pace in the front group, and as a result, the yellow jersey was only eight seconds behind after the descent. Had the team rallied around Dickson, this gap would probably have been bigger, and with Muzic and Berthet pulling in the final, Bredewold almost certainly wouldn’t have made it back.
It’s anyone’s guess whether the front group would have kept the 16-second gap that was needed for Dickson to leapfrog Bredewold even with a stage victory, but the 26-year-old Briton’s third place in the sprint behind Włodarczyk and Muzic shows that even after several attacks, she was still capable of out-sprinting Kastelijn (who finished fifth) to take the bonus seconds necessary.
However, once Bredewold was back in the virtual lead after the downhill, rolling attacks in the final was the right move: Dickson and Berthet tried to get away solo while Muzic saved herself for the sprint.
Dickson’s last move on the final kilometre looked the best, but Niedermaier closed the gap like she had on the climb, and in the end, Muzic could not out-sprint Włodarczyk for the stage.
