Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) took the first victory of her 2025 season by winning stage 2 of La Vuelta Femenina in an uphill sprint in Sant Boi de Llobregat.
The 37-year-old veteran was first through the final corner with 150 metres to go and sprinted away to cross the line ahead of Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Oatly).
Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) lost contact with the leading group and slipped out of the race lead. With her six-second time bonus, Paternoster moved into the red jersey and leads by two seconds over Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) and three seconds ahead of Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek).
"It feels really good, especially when the whole team puts all the effort in, not only in this race but all the season already. After what happened yesterday [when the team's TTT start was delayed by bike checks] we wanted to take that energy into today and all committed to it. I'm very happy I could finish it off," said Vos after her sixth Vuelta stage victory.
"It was Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Imogen Wolff still with me, and it was amazing just to follow their wheels and to be able to get to the last corner in front due to their work. Yes, it was slippery, but being in the front is then the best position," Vos described the technical finish with several roundabouts and corners.
How it unfolded
Race leader Ellen van Dijk in red lines up with the other classification leaders for stage 2 (Image credit: Getty Images)
The 99-kilometre stage from Molins de Rei to Sant Boi de Llobregat took in the Catalonian hinterland west of Barcelona. It started with the 10km climb of the Alt de La Creu de L'Aragall where Ane Santesteban (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) initiated an attack and was first over the top to take the mountain points and move into the polka-dot jersey.
After Santesteban was caught on the descent, Elena Cecchini (SD Worx-Protime) went on the move, holding a lead of up to 50 seconds before she was reeled in again 64km from the finish. Since there were no successful breakaway attempts later in the race, though, Cecchini was awarded the white combativity jersey after the stage.
It started to rain, and Anastasiya Kolesava (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ-Suez) went down in a descent. Both could continue, but their crash led to a group of five riders led by Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) getting a small gap on the rest of the race, holding this for a few kilometres.
Elena Cecchini on the attack (Image credit: Getty Images)
When they were caught, Ariana Albert (Eneicat-CM) and Lea-Lin Teutenberg (Lotto) tried unsuccessfully to get away. In heavy rain, the peloton contested the intermediate sprint in Vilafranca del Penedès where Vos was first to take six bonus seconds ahead of Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) who received two bonus seconds and Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) with two bonus seconds. This put Gerritse into the virtual race lead as she had started the stage three seconds down on Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek).
Even though the rain stopped again, the wet roads still caused crashes. Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) was the most prominent victim, crashing in a roundabout just before the descent towards the finish started. Bradbury would finish 2:11 minutes behind, losing valuable time for her GC bid.
In the plain after the descent, Bradbury's teammate Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney made an attack but was soon brought back, and the sprint trains took over. They negotiated ten roundabouts in the last six kilometres without incident, and Ferrand-Prévot and Wolff dropped off Vos at the front of the peloton going into the final left-hand turn 150 metres from the finish line.
Vos sprinted out of the corner followed by Borghesi and Paternoster, but in fifth position, the bike Cat Ferguson (Movistar) slid out on wet paint, causing her to crash, also holding up Gerritse and Megan Jastrab (Picnic PostNL).
Vos had opened up a gap of several bike lengths and could sit up to celebrate her victory. On the final metres, Paternoster came out of Borghesi's slipstream, timing her sprint perfectly to take second place and the red jersey.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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