Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal) animated the finale of Vuelta a Burgos Féminas stage 3, attacking with 27km to go and keeping her solo move going until the 6km mark when she was caught by Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), who eventually outsprinted Benito for the stage victory.
“Honestly, I have mixed feelings. When you come that close, there is always a bit of frustration because you start imagining that maybe it could actually happen. But at the same time, I’m really proud of the way we raced as a team today. Personally, it also gives me a lot of confidence to perform like this again and be competitive at this level. I come from some really tough months, so this result means a lot to me,” Benito told Cyclingnews.
Having Nicole Steigenga in the break of the day set up Benito’s attack well, and when Steigenga was reeled in, the Spanish time trial champion made her move.
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“We really wanted to make the race aggressive today. Nicole first did an amazing job in the early breakaway, forcing the other teams to work from quite far out. When we caught her back, I just felt the right moment to go. As soon as my teammates said there was some hesitation behind, I felt good and decided to fully commit to it,” Benito said.
The peloton was still relatively big at this point, more than 50 riders, and Benito made the most of her opportunity: The 29-year-old went all-in and quickly built an advantage of 1:24 minutes within just a few kilometres.
“I knew that if I could settle into a consistent TT-like pace, they really needed a proper collective interest to chase hard. Many teams probably thought they could bring me back later whenever they wanted,” she explained.
With 17km to go, Benito hit the Alto de Bocos, and the attacks and accelerations that split the peloton also cut her gap in half on the climb.
“That was a really hard effort. I started feeling that I was losing too much speed on the climb, especially with the headwind, and I could hear that the seconds were going down quite quickly. I really gave everything because I knew that if they came back, the attacks would start immediately,” said Benito.
Benito still being 40 seconds ahead at the top of the climb forced Bredewold’s hand. With Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) present, the chase group of 15 riders was unlikely to work well together, so Bredewold went away on the descent with Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) and Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco), then jumped again to bridge to Benito 6km from the line.
“She came past me flying, and for a second, I almost lost her wheel. I immediately thought that even if I knew she was way faster than me in a sprint, she was probably still the best company to go into the final with. After being alone for long, having someone strong there also helps mentally because you can keep the speed really high together,” Benito described the moment when her solo was over.
With Bredewold being a better sprinter, the thought of sitting on her wheel and not taking turns did cross Benito’s mind – but she committed fully to the new situation as it was still the best shot at success for her team.
“Mischa had Lorena behind, so if I completely stopped pulling, then she probably would have stopped as well because they had a nearly guaranteed winning scenario either way. I felt that continuing to collaborate at least gave me a chance to stay away and fight for the stage until the end. Sometimes you also just have to fully commit to the race situation instead of overthinking too much,” the 29-year-old described the final kilometres.
In 2025, Benito finished 12th overall in the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas, and she will enter the final stage in third place in the general classification. But after her time in the spotlight, she is ready to slot back into a domestique role, supporting Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio for the summit finish at the Lagunas de Neila.
“First of all, I hope we can recover well from today because it was a huge effort. We’ll go out there and give everything again, and personally I want to focus on helping Ashleigh, she is really strong and can be a big shot for our GC,” Benito finished.
