This spring, Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) is quickly cementing her place not only among the best Spanish riders but among the best riders of the women's peloton as a whole.
The 23-year-old finished second on stage 6 of the Vuelta Femenina, losing only eight seconds to stage winner and new overall leader Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) on the climb of Les Praeres, 3.7km with an incredible average gradient of 13.4%.
"I have a bittersweet feeling because I was so close the whole time. I had to ease off for a while because I was pushing too hard. But then I could see that I was keeping up, and all I lacked was cadence. I think I had a larger chainring than I should have, and that really killed me.
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"We had been warned about it, but I wasn't expecting these steep ramps. But all in all, I think I can be pretty happy," said Blasi right after the stage, still catching her breath from the crazy climbing.
Blasi's reactions say a lot about her mental strength: While she is happy about the result as such, she is also expecting a lot from herself, confident that she can deliver and ready to put the work in to improve even further.
The 23-year-old is also looking forward to the final stage finishing on L'Angliru, a longer climb of 12.4km with an average gradient of 'only' 9.7%.
"It was frustrating. I was feeling good, but on these super-steep ramps, I realised I still need to train more on this type of climb. But it gives me motivation, and tomorrow is different, the climb is longer, and although it will also be hard, I don't think there are any ramps quite this demanding. I will fight for it," said Blasi.
Although she was rated as an up-and-coming star, Blasi's victory in the Amstel Gold Race put her name front and centre. That victory had come from a breakaway, but she confirmed her strength by going head-to-head with the favourites in the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège to finish third and fifth. On Les Praeres, Blasi again found herself not only competing with but even riding stronger than long-established names.
"I didn't expect this. The ambition is always to try to make the podium. Like with Amstel, you always want to win, but you never actually expect it. But when we were on the climb, and I saw that Kasia [Niewiadoma-Phinney] was starting to drop back, I thought, 'it's up to me now'," she said.
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