Another big week in cycling and we have so much to talk about but I have had to keep things brief and limited to the two biggest races that have just concluded, or are currently running at the moment. Of course La Vuelta Femenina concluded last week and even though the race races over seven stages, the leaders jersey changed hands four times over the course, and the winner was never certain until the final climb of the final stage. The second big race going on at the moment, is of course the Giro d’Italia. Stage 5 concluded a few hours ago, but the race is still in it’s early stages, so there is a lot more racing to come.
La Vuelta Femenina Concludes With Annemiek van Vleuten Winning Overall
Last week, La Vuelta Femenina concluded and it was not the result I had thought was almost a sure thing. If you read my article last week, Marianne Vos had just won her first stage of the Vuelta, but there was still a lot more twists before we had our overall champion crowned.
If you need to catch up on the first three stages of La Vuelta Femenina check out last weeks news post for an article to get you up to speed. A run down of the first three stages of the race can be found here
Stage 4 of the Vuelta had Marianne Vos win another stage with the 133km road race travelling from Cuenca to Guadalajara on another windy day in the Spanish country side. Vos of Team Jumbo-Visma made it two stage wins in a row and securing the red leaders jersey on an uneventful stage. Any breaks were quickly kept in track by the peloton with Vos making a small gap in the final climb of the day to take the victory ahead of Emma Norsgaard of Movistar and Marlon Reusser of SD Worx who came in third.
Stage 5 of La Vuelta headed into the mountains with a 129km stage from La Cabrera to Mirador de Penas Llanas, with the final 5km of the stage a 6.7% climb to finish above Riaza . It was Demi Vollering of Team SD Worx that took out the stage as no one was able to keep with her as she made the final climb of the day. She finished 5 seconds ahead of her closest competitor, who was Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar, and Ricarda Bauernfeind of Canyon SRAM, finishing third, who was a further 12 seconds back. The stage win for Vollering also saw her take the red leaders jersey off Marianne Vos for the day as well.
Stage 6 of the 2023 Vuelta is where the major moves of the overall results were made. The 106km stage started in Castro Urdiales and finished in Laredo. Demi Vollering started the day with the red jersey but seemed under pressure and Team Movistar took advantage of the situation commanding the main peloton and helping Annemiek van Vleuten make a successful attack on one of the climbs and was able to push her lead to a minute. A chase group attempted to catch Vleuten but it was only Gaia Realini of Trek Segafredo who was able to catch Vleuten, who continued to do a bulk of the work into the final sprint, leaving Realini fresher for a sprint finish and was able to take the win just ahead of Vleuten, and Leos Adegeest of FDJ SUEZ was able to take third from the chase group, a further minute behind the leaders. The second place gave Annemiek van Vleuten a big advantage and the overall lead and red jersey running into the final stage of La Vuelta.
The final stage of La Vuelta ran from Utiel for 188km to Oliva. Annemiek van Vleuten was wearing the red jersey at the start of the day, but there was still time for other riders to make a move on the final stage. With 8km to go Demi Vollering climbed clear of the peloton, following on her wheel were Gaia Realini of Trek-Segafredo, Evita Muzic of FDJ-SUEZ. Van Vleuten was also able to climb with this small group but was only able to hold the pace for a further 1km before dropping off the pace. The small decent into the final kilometre of the stage allowed Vollering to go clear from Realini and Muzic and win the final stage, but it was not enough to give her the overall victory for the Vuelta. She was still 9 seconds behind Annemiek van Vleuten who was declared overall winner for her team Movistar.
[Image Annemiek van Vleuten, Courtesy Getty Images]
Giro d'Italia Enters It's First Week Of Racing
The first Grand Tour of the year kicked off over the weekend, and we’ve already seen 5 stages, with already some pretty exciting riding. Unfortunately, one of the big names, Tadej Pogacar will not be racing due to injury, but the first stages have provided some pretty great racing. The following is a break down of stage 1 to stage 5 with more to come in the following weeks.
The first stage of the Giro D’Italia for 2023 was a 19.6km individual time trial from Fossacasia Marina to Ortona, along the Costa dei Trabocchi. Mostly a flat course, but offered an 8% climb coming into the finish line in Ortona. Remco Evenepoel made it clear he had come to Italy for the overall Giro title win as he took away the first stage victory and also claimed the pink jersey and taking a nice lead moving into stage two. Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step is the Belgium national time trial champion and by the half way point of his ride, was already 20 seconds ahead of the best time so far for the day. He finished with a time of 21 minutes and 18 seconds, and there was a big gap between his ride and the rest of the competition. The closest was Filippo Canna of Ineos Grenadiers who was still 22 seconds behind Evenepoel, and Joao Almeida of UAE Team Emirates, was third for the stage and 29 seconds behind.
Stage 2 of the Giro, had the peloton travel south along the Adriatic Coast from Teramo to San Salvo for a total of 204km. A mostly flat stage, it was set to be a stage for the sprinters to race the final few kilometres for the win. Any breaks from the peloton were quickly brought back to the group in a matter of minutes. The stage went along with no real drama or attacks until the final five kilometres of the stage where there was a **crash between Movistar’s Max Kanter and DSM’s Martijn Tusveld **. This caused a number of riders to be delayed, missing their opportunity to win the stage. One of the favourites for the stage was Mark Cavendish of Astana-Qazaqstan, who was not able to recover and make it to the sprint finish. Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck made the first move in the final straight but missed out on the stage win with **Jonathan Milan of Bahrain-Victorious **winning the stage and David Dekker of Arkea-Samsic coming in second. Groves, was still in the race, but had to settle for third place in the stage. Remco Evenepoel was able to stay clear of the earlier crash and was able to keep hold of the pink jersey, followed by Filippo Ganna.
The third stage of the Giro d’Italia takes riders on a 213km journey from Vasto to Melfi. Another relatively flat stage but with an uphill sprint to the finish, with Michael Matthews of Jayco-ALUIa taking the victory against Mads Peterson of Trek-Segafredo.
Matthews sat behind the wheel of Pedersen for the final kilometre of the stage, jumping ahead with over 200m still to go in the stage. Pedersen did his best to keep with Matthews but he had too much of a lead taking the stage, which was his third Giro stage win of his career. Remco Evenepoel was able to extend his overall lead to 32 seconds after stage 3 with Joao Almeida of UAE Team Emirates moving up to second place. Primoz Roglic moved up from fifth place to third, but is still 44 seconds behind Evenepoel.
The 9th of May saw the fourth stage of the Giro take place, and the first to head into the mountains with a tough 175km ride from Venus to Lago Laceno. Due to steep and fast decent combined with wet weather conditions made the stage a little frantic and left riders trying their best to stay safe. A seven man break away was able to form at about the half way point, which was able to stay clear of the main group with Andreas Leknessund of Team DSM and Aurelien Paret-Peintre of AG2R Citroen taking a lead from the rest of the group on the final climb. The two riders rode towards the finish with both exchanging the lead, but it was to be the Frenchman Paret-Peintre to have the win for the stage. Leknessund had to settle for second on the day, with *Tom Skujins of Trek-Segafredo finishing a further 20 seconds behind in third. Leknessund, although was not the stage winner, he took over the pink jersey from Remco Evenepoel who is now 28 seconds behind Leknessund who becomes the first Norwegian in 42 years to wear the pink jersey.
Stage 5 of the Giro took on a hilly 171km route from Atripalda down to the city of Salerno. The hilly terrain in the first half of the stage begged for a break away, but it ended up coming down to a bunch sprint finish at the end of the day. Rain through the day caused a lot of problems for riders, with riders getting caught up in multiple crashes, including the top three of the overall race leaders. Even the final sprint to the finish included Mark Cavendish sliding across the finish line on his side. But the day belonged to Australian Karen Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck who had also crashed earlier in the day to be the fastest in the final sprint finish. Groves made it ahead of Jonathan Milan of Bahrain Victorious and Mads Pedersen of Trek-Segafredo. Andreas Leknessund of Team DSM kept a hold of the pink jersey, even after his falls earlier in the day.
[Image Kaden Groves Winning Stage 5, Courtesy Getty Images]
Weekly Cycling News Is Brought To You By:
The Vespa OFM Podcast
This week Vespa OFM Podcast is interviewing Vespa / OFM Ambassador Bree Lambert Sanders, who is a nutritionist and coach in the San Jose area. Bree who, at 54 years young, still competes at the elite level including winding up with an overall win or a place on the podium.
About The Author
I am a DevOps Engineer, Endurance Athlete, Biomechanics Student and Author. We can all achieve amazing things, it's just a matter of trying, I want to change the world, one run at a time.