Lotta Henttala (EF Education-Oatly) waited for the final corner with under 300 metres to go and sprinted to victory at Trofeo Marratixi-Felanitx in Mallorca. There was no chance for anyone to match the powerful acceleration, Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) going second and Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered Health) taking third.
The Finnish sprinter lined up behind her EF Education-Oatly teammates in the final kilometers and jettisoned to victory, scoring another big win for the team after Noemi Rüegg’s stage and overall win at the Santos Tour Down Under.
A late crash took down several riders, including Alison Jackson and Cédrine Kerbaol, but they suffered only minor scrapes and were able to celebrated with Henttala at the finish.
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“We played the poker game. We crashed, with Alison and Cédrine going down and we all had to chase from that and use energy. In the sprint, I just told the riders to stick to the left-hand side because we had the horsepower," she said in a team statement.
"It was going fast on the right and there was a little bit of panic but we were coming faster. We passed them at the final roundabout, just as we had planned. We executed the plan so it’s super nice."
Trofeo Marratixi-Felanitx kicked off three days of racing at Challenge Mallorca Femenina as well as the women's European road racing calendar. A warm day coloured by blue sky and green palm trees to welcomed the peloton to Mallorca, a balanced field of six WorldTeams, six Continental teams, five ProTeams and a Spanish national team headed from Marratxi for 129.1 of rolling kilometres at the second edition 1.1 race.
Marina Garau (Bepink-Bongioanni), Afghanistan national champion Fariba Hashimi (Ceratizit Pro Cycling), Monica Castagna (top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and Julie Sap (Velopro-Alphamotorhomes) formed the break of the day, the group gaining 3:35 on the peloton just beyond the half-way point of the race.
The quartet worked well together, but began to exchange looks once passing a special sprint at Ses Salines with 23km to go. Behind, the WorldTour squads UAE Team ADQ, Cofids and Movistar were pushing the chase, the gap down to under the minute mark.
With 14km to go, the Afghanistan champion made a move on long, flat section, but Spain's Garau countered. Castagna amd Sap rejoined as the peloton bore down 25 second behind with the slight rise to Ca s'Hereu Mas providing the third and final QOM points.
The peloton was still spread across the wide road with 10km to go, but the sprint teams began to shift to the front with the breakaway riders in clear view ahead. Hashimi worked at the lead of the four, flicked her elbow a couple of times, but received no collaboration to continue the flight at the front, their efforts absorbed into the peloton on the approach to the final short climb and 8km to go.
Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal) galloped ahead to take the mountain points, and a tailwind helped her stretch the solo attack to about 10 seconds for the next 3km. There was no panic from the sprint teams which regrouped with ease.
Human Powered Health moved to the front with 3.5km to go, anticipating long, straight path about to hit a rise in the next 1.5km and a roundabout to signal the entrance into the finish city.
EF Education's Henttala opened her sprint in the final left-hand corner, no one able to match her acceleration.
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