Spratt wins Emakumeen Bira

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Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott)  won the final stage of the Emakumeen Bira, riding solo for more than 50 kilometres and taking the white leader's jersey off the shoulders of her teammate Annemiek van Vleuten, who finished second overall.

Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) won the points classification in addition to her third place overall which means that she defended her lead in the UCI Women's WorldTour classification. Asja Paladin (Valcar PBM) took home the mountain jersey, Katarzyna Pawlowska (Team Virtu Cycling) won the jersey for intermediate sprints. Aafke Soet (WNT Rotor) was the best U23 rider, and Ane Santesteban (Alé Cipollini) was the best Basque.

How it happened

Containing three classified climbs, the 120-kilometre stage around Iurreta had the most challenging parcours of the four-day race. The ascent to Urkiola was the key point of the race. Although there remained almost 50km from its top to the finish, six kilometres at an average 9.1 per cent were certain to leave their mark on the peloton.

The sun was out again after a rainy stage 3, and the peloton was whittled down to some 50 riders on the first climb of the day. Alicia González (Movistar Team), Alice Maria Arzuffi (Bizkaia Durango-Euskadi Murias), and Rachel Neylan (Movistar Team) made moves on the flat stretch leading to the Urkiola climb but didn't stay out front for long, and a group of 24 riders started the hardest climb of the race together.

Spratt quickly took up a position at the front and stretched out the group. Soon Spratt was up and away, increasing her lead to 40 seconds with two kilometres left to climb. The three top favourites; van der Breggen, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo Bigla), and overnight leader van Vleuten, watched each other's every move. Together, they passed the riders in front of them, cresting the top of the climb 35 seconds behind Spratt, who was still ahead.

The trio did not press on with the same urgency, giving some riders the opportunity to get back up and allowing Spratt to increase her gap. At the bonus sprint with 27km to go, she had built an advantage of over three minutes. Having started the day 1:37 minutes down overall, Spratt was now facing a possible overall victory.

At the 20-kilometre mark, Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5) and Olga Zabelinskaya (Cogeas-Mettler) had attacked from the chase group. They took back some time as the solo effort made itself felt for Spratt.

The last climb of the race was the shorter, less demanding side of the Urkiola followed by a descent of the steep side and a six-kilometre run-in to the finish. Spratt held strong on the climb and went into the downhill 1:37 minutes ahead of Longo Borghini and Zabelinskaya, a six-rider group with van Vleuten, van der Breggen, and Moolman-Pasio was 28 seconds further back.

With this comfortable lead, Spratt raced safely down the descent and through the final kilometres to take an impressive victory after a solo of over 50 kilometres. At 1:16 minutes later, Longo Borghini beat Zabelinskaya in the sprint for second place on the stage. When Malgorzata Jasinska (Movistar Team) led home the next group 2:12 minutes behind Spratt, it was clear that the Australian had also won the race overall in addition to her stage victory.

"We had three riders in the top-10 going into today, and we really used our numbers, isolating Ashleigh and Anna in particular," Spratt said in a TV interview at the finish. "I was in a good situation and just kept going. It wasn't exactly the plan, and I didn't expect to get such a big gap, but I did. It's a great victory for the whole team."

The UCI Women's WorldTour will continue with the Ovo Energy Women's Tour from June 13-17.

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