Vuelta a Burgos Féminas: Lorena Wiebes sprints to stage 1 victory on gruelling uphill finish

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 1 of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas, outsprinting Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) on the uphill finish in Poza de la Sal. Wiebes' teammate Lotte Kopecky had led out the sprint and held on for third place.

After the early break had been caught with just under 40km to go, a strong group of 11 riders got away from the peloton and turned the stage into a GC fight over the Alto La Varga.

The chasing group closed the gap after the descent, and Célia Gery (FDJ-Suez) and Steffi Häberlin (SD Worx-Protime) went off the front 17.4km from the finish. They built a gap of almost a minute but were eventually reeled in with 1.3km to go, setting up a hard sprint on the 6-per cent slopes of the final kilometre.

"It's nice to win the 1st stage in the Vuelta a Burgos. We had two cards to play in the final with Lotte Kopecky and me. When I saw Elisa Balsamo came over Lotte, I also started my sprint, and it worked out for the win," said Wiebes after the stage.

"We knew that the uphill part was steepest towards the last 300 meters. I followed Elisa Longo Borghini and took the outside corner. It was really tough towards the finish line, but I'm really proud of how I finished it off."

How it unfolded

The 125-kilometre stage from Burgos to Poza de la Sal included three third-category climbs, but this belied the profile of the stage, which had several more unclassified climbs and an uphill finish.

Right after the start, Morgane Coston (Roland) and Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) broke away to form the break of the day. 

They enjoyed an advantage of 5:35 minutes on the Alto de la Ermita de las Mercedes, where Coston was first over the top. As she had also won the Alto de las Rebolledas mountain sprint, the Frenchwoman will wear the red mountain jersey on stage 2. 

SD Worx-Protime in particular put their riders to work to reduce the gap, and on the descent from the unclassified Puerto de la Mazorra, Coston and Eraso were reeled in. 

A group of eleven riders counterattacked: Kopecky, Wiebes, Barbara Guarischi (all SD Worx-Protime), Gery, Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), Aude Biannic (Movistar), Elisa Longo Borghini, Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ), Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck), Franziska Koch (Picnic PostNL), and Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) went away. 

This split the peloton into several groups, with Movistar chasing hard in the second group, about 20 seconds behind.

On the Alto de La Varga, Guarischi, Blasi, Alvarado, and Schweinberger had to let go, and Marlen Reusser (Movistar) bridged to the remaining seven frontrunners on her own. 

Juliette Labous (FDJ-Suez), Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Edwards (Human Powered Health), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Katrine Aalerud, Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (both Uno-X Mobility), Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), and Häberlin followed, making it a front group of 17.

The following group made contact after the descent, though, to form a peloton of over 30 riders inside 19km to go. Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal) attacked right away, but it was the counterattack from Gery and Häberlin that was let go.

With nobody taking up the chase, Gery and Häberlin increased their advantage to 54 seconds with 7.5km to go, but when another dropped group came back to the peloton and Lidl-Trek immediately put two riders to work at the front, the gap started to come down.

More teams joined the chase as the front duo came into sight of the peloton, and Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) closed the gap on the lower slopes of the finishing climb, 1300 metres from the line.

Kopecky came to the front at the 500-metre mark, but Balsamo came off her wheel on the finishing straight, prompting Wiebes to sprint as well and take the victory.

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