It was a near-perfect day for Movistar at the Vuelta CV Feminas, with Liane Lippert grabbing solo victory and Cat Ferguson taking third from the reduced sprint behind her.
After a very attacking race, a reduced group came into the final 15km of the race with Movistar looking like they wanted to line it up for a sprint for Ferguson, but after a mammoth effort from Sara Martín, Lippert jumped on a counter attack to go solo with 3km to go, and hold on to the line.
How it unfolded
The short and punchy 94km race in Valencia got off to an attacking start, and it didn't take long for a move to get away. Agua Marina Espínola, Noémie Abgrall and Femke Van Goethem got away within 8km of the flag drop and, being a fairly non-threatening trio, they were allowed to build a good gap of two and a half minutes.
With 71km to go, a crash in the peloton saw Lidl-Trek duo Anna Henderson and Riejanne Markus go down, and Silvia Milesi (Vini Fantini-BePink) had to retire, with the crash slightly stalling the peloton as the leaders' gap held firm.
As the break went over the first climb at Oronet, Van Goethem struggled to hold on and was dangling behind the leaders as they approached the next climb, the Puerto del Garbí. With the climb approaching, Lidl-Trek took control in the bunch to keep the gap closeable.
Over the top of the Puerto del Garbí, Lippert spearheaded an acceleration in the peloton that drew out a reduced group of favourites, including Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ), Henderson, Julie Bego (Cofidis) and others. They soon caught Espinola, dropped from the front of the race, leaving just Abgrall ahead alone as the race descended towards the flat finish.
With 38km to go, the Lippert group of seven riders caught Abgrall, but they were only a handful of seconds ahead of the next group of chasers, with groups all over the road on the descent. Hitting the flat, the groups all merged together again, but as soon as that happened the attacks restarted too as things refused to settle.
Lidl-Trek and Movistar were the most active in their attacks, but it was hard for anyone to make the elastic snap with so many strong riders in the now fairly large regrouped bunch.
Though no groups could get away, the high pace of the attacks was again reducing the bunch, with fewer than 30 riders left with 25km to go. Repeatedly, a small group would get a gap and then be quickly brought back, and going into the final 15km, it started to look like the group were preparing for a bunch sprint, with Movistar working for Ferguson.
The rest of the lead group knew Ferguson was the favourite, and let Movistar do the majority of the work, with Sara Martín on the front for several kilometres, keeping the pace high enough to fend off any other attacks.
When Martín peeled off with 4km to go, as if on cue the attacks started again, first with Iurani Blanco (Human Powered Health) which Lippert shut down, but it split the group, and with a gap, the German rider pushed on alone. UAE Team ADQ tried to chase behind, but the momentum or cooperation wasn't quite there, and Lippert built a small but significant gap on the run-in to the finish.
Under the flamme rouge, the bunch had Lippert in their sights, but it wasn't enough to actually catch her, and the German rider soloed to the win, rewarding a big day of work for Movistar.
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