Cat Ferguson (Movistar) has continued an exceptional start to the season with another victory, this time on stage 2 at the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.
The 19-year-old capitalised on the element of surprise when she launched an attack just ahead of the final chicane inside 600 metres to go and held off the reduced peloton sprinting all the way to the finish line in Vila-Real.
Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) sprinted to second place and Letizia Borghesi (AG Insurance-Soudal) third on the day.
Latest Videos From
"It was really a team effort. Compared to yesterday, it felt like a different team, almost. We can be super proud of ourselves," Ferguson said in a post-race interview.
"Lidl-Trek were leading, and we were behind them. We were happy with our position and wanted to move up before the final big turn, about 2km to go. There was a crash with [Elisa] Balsamo, and I hope she is OK. Liane Lippert did the whole thing on the front, so big respect to her."
Overall race leader Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) was caught behind a crash in the reduced peloton inside 2km from the line, but finished the stage and retained her lead in the GC standings ahead of stage 3 on Saturday.
How it unfolded
Stage 2 (Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton raced 115km in and around Vila-Real for the second day of racing at the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
The biggest climbs of the day were held back-to-back over the Alt de Marianet (8.1km at 3.4%), Alt de Eslida (8.2km at 3.9%) and Alt de Aín (5.8km at 3.9%), followed by gently rolling terrain down toward the finish line back in Vila-Real.
Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) launched a solo move before the first climb, the Alt de Marianet and built up just over a minute on the approach to the second ascent of the day, Al de Eslida, but at four minutes down, not a threat to stage 1 winner and overall race leader Vollering.
Lieke Nooijen on the attack (Image credit: Getty Images)
She took all three mountain primes for a total of 16 points to take the lead in that classification.
After the summit of the Alt de Aín, Nooijen was joined by Talia Appleton (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) and had a 45-second lead on the Vollering group.
The reinforcements helped immensely, bringing the trio's advantage to 1:30 over the peloton. However, with just 20km remaining, and with the major teams pulling the peloton into Vila-Real, their gap was slashed to just 40 seconds.
Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset leads the late attack (Image credit: Getty Images)
Lidl-Trek moved to the front of the field for their sprinter, Elisa Balsamo, who has won seven stages at this event since 2022. The powerful team brought the gap to the breakaway down to just 10 seconds in the last five kilometres, and they were completely reeled back inside three to go.
A crash brought down several riders in the peloton at 1.8km to go, including Balsamo, ending her chances at the sprint, and Vollering was caught behind the accident.
Teams Movistar, Lidl-Trek and Liv Jayco AlUla were still on the front into the last kilometre with Ferguson taking a flyer through the final technical chicane and holding off the chasing field all the way to the line.
Kirsten Frattini has been the Editor of Cyclingnews since December 2025, overseeing editorial operations and output across the brand and delivering quality, engaging content.
She manages global budgets, racing & events, production scheduling, and contributor commissions, collaborating across content sections and teams in the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia to ensure audience and subscription growth across the brand.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
