Mavi Garcia (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) held on to the overall lead to win the third edition of the Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia Women as Movistar's Arlenis Sierra won the final stage in a reduced sprint finish in Pizarra.
It was a dominant sprint from the Cuban, who took her first win of the season. Liv-AlUla-Jayco's Quinty Ton was second and Alena Amialiusik of the UAE Development Team finished third.
Garcia's wins this week brought to an end an almost year-long win drought. Liv-AlUla-Jayco filled the final podium as Garcia was joined by her young teammates Silke Smulders and Ella Wyllie. Earlier in the week, Smulders had won the opening stage and Wyllie took the third.
After securing overall victory by a margin of 15 seconds, Garcia said in a team press release: “I am very happy. We worked very well at this race all together. We won three stages, we took the three podium places overall and it has been a great pleasure, and we are all very proud."
The team were after more glory on the final stage, but came up short in the sprint. They did, however, manage to seal the mountain's jersey with Alex Manly after she finished second over the first climb of the stage.
"Today was a really good day, all the team committed to work to try and win the stage to make it four in a row," Garcia said. "Finally, we didn’t win the stage but almost with second place and also we fought a lot for the mountains prize for Alex and we took it. We worked to keep my overall yellow jersey and I think everything has been really great and I am very happy to take the overall yellow jersey.”
How it Unfolded
It's been a heavy few days of climbing for the peloton and the fourth and final stage around Málaga, from Alhaurín de la Torre to Pizarra, was no different.
The flattest 40 kilometres of the whole race came at the start of the stage and four riders seized the opportunity to attack and created the breakaway of the day. The quartet were Lourdes Oyarbide (Laboral), Francesca Pellegrini (UAE), Ariana Gilabert Vilaplana (Eneicat) and Mireia Trias Jordan (Massi Baix Ter).
That early move was closed down on the approach to an intermediate sprint in Pizarra, the peloton also getting an early look at the finish. Liv-AlUla-Jayco's Silke Smulders, second on GC at the start of the day, won the sprint ahead of Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno X Mobility) and Mireia Benito, the only rider left for the Spanish National Team.
As the peloton departed Pizarra, it split into two large groups. Uno X's Joss Lowden then made a solo move, building her lead to just over a minute as the climbing started.
Lowden stayed away over the first climb, the second-category Alto del Caminito del Rey. Alex Manly (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) and Henrietta Christie (Human Powered Health) took second and third over the ascent from the peloton.
With 30km to go, approaching the second categorised climb of the day, Lowden's lead had shrunk to 30 seconds to the Liv-AlUla-Jayco fronted peloton. On the middle section of the Puerto Martinez, Lowden was caught. Benito, sitting eighth on GC at the start of the day, made a counter move, holding a lead of around 10 seconds as she crested the climb first. Carlotta Cipressi (UAE) went over second and Ottestad was third.
On the descent, Benito held onto her 10 second lead as the riders descended towards the finish in Pizarra. With 5km to go, and with the descent flattening out, Movistar led the chase and brought back Benito, hoping to set up a reduced sprint for the stage.
Uno X Mobility led the group as they made their way towards the final kilometre, looking to set up Anouska Koster for the final sprint. However, it was Sierra who surged away from the group in the closing metres to win by several bike lengths.
Garcia and several of her Liv-AlUla-Jayco teammates remained comfortably in the group at the end and took home a memorable sweep of the overall podium placings.
Results
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