Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx: Karlijn Swinkels outduels Liane Lippert for victory

UAE Team ADQ's Karlijn Swinkels won a wind-shortened edition of the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx in Mallorca, prevailing in a three-rider uphill sprint atop the Port d'Andratx.

The Dutch rider beat Liane Lippert (Movistar) into second with Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) taking third in a slow-motion sprint at the top of the steep ascent. This meant that UAE Team ADQ has taken two of three wins in the Challenge Mallorca series after Maëva Squiban's victory on Sunday.

After a controlled first half of the race, a strong eight-rider breakaway finally got away in the final 35km, and with the biggest teams all represented, they quickly built a lead and the peloton never caught them.

The battle for the win then played out on the 2.3km Port d'Andratx climb, with a group of three breaking away from the rest of the group in the final kilometre, set up by an attack by Swinkels' teammate Eleonora Gasparrini, the effort repaid with a win.

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How it unfolded

Monday's Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx was the third and final part of the women's Challenge Mallorca series, after wins for Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) and Cat Ferguson (Movistar) over the weekend.

The course was set to be 107km, but due to high winds it was cut down to a punchy 75km, still featuring three categorised climbs and finishing atop the 2.3km Port d'Andratx.

With the shorter length, the peloton was not keen to let a breakaway go on Monday afternoon, and the riders kept the pace high and the group compact for the first 40km and over the Coll den Claret, with no breaks getting any real gaps in the first half of the race.

It wasn't until the final 35km of the shortened race that a group got away properly, with Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) spearheading an eight-rider group that formed over the rolling roads between categorised climbs.

She was joined by Ferguson and Liane Lippert (Movistar), Karlijn Swinkels and Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), Thalita De Jong (Human Powered Health), Mie Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) and Debora Silvestri (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi).

With most of the strongest teams represented in the front, there was little impetus to chase behind, and the gap quickly grew, with the leaders starting the final 25km with a gap just shy of a minute. Behind, what remained of the peloton was shrinking quickly.

Over the Coll de sa Gramola, Movistar and UAE were using their numbers to set the pace in the lead. Over the top of the climb, Henderson really upped the pace and raced down the descent, putting the pressure into the group, but they were together again on the flat going into the final 8km and heading towards the final climb.

In the run-in to the climb, Ferguson was working hard, presumably in support of the stronger climber Lippert. The leaders started the Port d'Andratx with a 1:44 advantage over the peloton, ready to battle for the win between them on the steep slopes.

Ferguson was the first to drop, having put all her effort into Lippert. Gasparrini then launched the first attack at 1.5km to go on a flat section, but was caught when the road went up again, as Ottestad, Lippert and Swinkels emerged in the lead, Swinkels taking advantage of her teammate's effort.

The trio watched each other heading towards the final few hundred metres with a few twists and turns in the finale, and it was Swinkels who hit out first, but that seemed to be the right decision as she held her momentum all the way to the line to take a second win in three race days for UAE Team ADQ.

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