On the first of two hilltop finishes at the re-vamped La Vuelta Femenina, Demi Vollering made her mark and cemented her position as the strongest rider in the women’s peloton right now.
It is a title that would erstwhile have easily gone to world champion Annemiek van Vleuten who, until very recently, dominated the women’s WorldTour on all terrains, but especially when the road goes uphill.
In previous seasons, a Van Vleuten win on a day like Friday’s finish atop the Mirador de Peñas Llanas would have been an inevitability. One look at the profile — a steep, uphill finish atop a 5 km climb — would have had a solo Van Vleuten win written all over it.
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On the day, however, it was Vollering who rode to her sixth WorldTour victory of the season, propelling herself into the GC lead by a margin of 5 seconds ahead of Van Vleuten who could only hang on for second. The stark difference between the style of the two riders as they approached the line — Vollering still and calm, Van Vleuten resembling a marionette, limbs poking in all directions — appeared to reveal the differing efforts required by each as they went head-to-head for the first time on such a finish since 2022.
Those who are familiar with Van Vleuten’s style, however, will know that the 40-year-old always makes her effort visible in her body language, even when she is on her way to a win.
Stage 5 was the closest that Van Vleuten had come to Vollering so far this season as her younger compatriot romped her way through the classics season, making a mockery of the rest of the peloton in a way that used to be the reserve of Van Vleuten herself. While Vollering took a clean Ardennes sweep, Van Vleuten could only manage a couple of top-10s, admitting that she felt some way off her best form in a post on her personal website.
Despite little indication from her spring performances that the Movistar rider was coming to La Vuelta with a serious chance at defending her title, she is a rider who can never be discounted, especially in a hilly stage race.
Coming into La Vuelta she played down both her chances and the race’s prestige saying: “I think we will really use this Vuelta to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, with a view to the really big goals coming up, the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France…maybe also the form that is not far off, but should just be a little better to beat the strong other riders.
This is going to be very different, with the long uphill finish. I’m going to see how that goes, at least I’m looking forward to it and take with me from Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège that the level is not very far away.”
By the end of stage 5, however, Van Vleuten was feeling confident and looking ahead to the final stage and the Lagos de Covadonga climb which, at 13 km with an average gradient of 6.8 percent and pitches of 12 percent, is her bread and butter.
“On the final day we climb to Lagos de Covadonga and that is very different from today. This was more explosive though. Something more like the Mur de Huy, which Demi likes more than me,” she said. “I was quite afraid of Trek-Segafredo’s Realini beforehand, but she has already lost a lot of time in the crosswind stage, which we rode well in. Now I have to keep an eye on Demi and be attentive tomorrow, because that stage is difficult.”
Vollering echoed Van Vleuten’s comparison to the Ardennes, “I tackled it like I did in the Ardennes classics. Just riding my own pace and trying to thin out the group that way,” she said. “When Van Vleuten then attacked, I still felt strong. So I decided to accelerate again myself. For a moment I feared it was too early, but fortunately I was able to hold on until the end. This was a tough stage. I was keen on the win. Then it’s nice that I can also finish it.”
It was at the Vuelta in 2022 that Van Vleuten raced to her third ‘grand tour’ victory of the season. After winning the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift by a margin of more than 3 minutes ahead of Vollering, Van Vleuten replicated her dominance on the climbs as she rode to the win on the hilly second stage of the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta to secure a 2:16 margin ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini. Vollering, who had tried to follow Van Vleuten’s attack, was visibly deflated by the Movistar rider’s dominance over her as she watched her ride away for the umpteenth time that season.
This time, the contest is far closer between the two Dutch women and the scales seem to be tipped in Vollering’s favor. But only slightly. The SD Worx rider goes into stage 6 with a 5 second lead over her compatriot as the race heads into Van Vleuten’s preferred terrain. Vollering has yet to beat Van Vleuten on a mountain stage and although she appears to have elevated her form even further since last year, an in-form Van Vleuten is hard to beat on a long climb.
Regardless of whether it is Vollering or Van Vleuten who crosses the line first atop Lagos de Covadonga, the close contest between them — and others who are close behind — makes for exciting racing as we head into the final two stages of La Vuelta.
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