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womensworldtour · 7 months ago

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5 Takeaways from La Vuelta Feminina

Competition is good.

There were no boring stages. Every stage of La Vuelta Feminina was competitive this year, and most were quite close. Even the sprint stages ended up having major GC action with the cross-winds. If you look at the results, it seems to favor the super teams like SD Worx-Protime and Visma Lease-a-Bike, and they certainly did have good results. But every stage was hotly contested, there were no dominant solo breakaways, and teams like FDJ-Suez or EF Education-Cannondale played their cards well to upset the favorites for some stage races. Frankly, the Vuelta Feminina was a lot more fun to watch than the men's Giro d'Italia is looking to be. (There, we said it!)

2. La Vuelta Feminina's spot on the calendar is fantastic.

We think the organizers of the Vuelta Feminina have absolutely nailed the spot on the calendar. That lull at the end of the spring classics was just begging for a stage race, and Spain's beautiful countryside and cities look best in spring. That's always been the down side of La Vuelta versus Le Tour in the men's calendar, the scenery is so much greener and prettier during the Tour in July than the Vuelta in August. A spring Vuelta solves that problem and avoids overlap with the Tour de France Femme or the Giro Donne, bringing top talent to the race.

3. Weird dynamics at SD Worx-Protime continue.

Honestly, we don't know what is going on in this team. Demi Vollering's performance was great, she deserved both stage wins and the general classification. But her best mountain domestique was arguably Grace Brown of FDJ-Suez and not any of her own teammates. There were times when Marlen Reusser or Mischa Bredewold seemed to attack Vollering, or when Vollering was leading out the group with her own teammates behind. It didn't escape our notice that Vollering wasn't on the podium when SD Worx accepted the best team award. No one outside the team can tell, but Abby Mickey of the Escape Collective probably said it best when she said "the SD Worx-Protime team bus can’t be a fun place to hang out at the moment."

4. Crashes continue to be a real danger.

It's been a horrible year for crashes in both the men's and women's peloton, and the Vuelta Feminina saw its share of them, even in the winning team on the first TTT stage! It's a shame we didn't get to see a rematch of Gaia Realini versus Demi Vollering due to Realini's crash and withdrawal, although Evita Muzic took us somewhat by surprise and rose to the challenge instead. Likewise, the withdrawal of very strong riders like Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek), Anna Henderson (Visma Lease-a-Bike), Emma Norsgaard (Movistar), Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Suez), Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale), and several others due to injuries from crashes was a real shame.

5. Several riders and teams are stepping up.

It wouldn't be fair to say that Evita Muzic has been flying below anyone's radar, but until last week, we didn't know how good her form has become. If she hadn't been caught in the second group during the crosswind echelons of Stage 4, she would have had a real shot at the podium, but she can be happy with her stellar victory on Stage 6. Similarly, Riejanne Markus was remarkably consistent in the mountains and her second-place finish is a real mark to watch her in future GC competitions. Both FDJ-Suez and EF Education-Cannondale were very strategic, using their riders effectively, and nabbed some great stage wins as a result. Ricarda Bauernfeind's (Canyon-SRAM) sixth-place finish was impressive, if only because she lost two minutes in the Stage 4 crosswind split, and was presumably riding for teammate Kasia Niewiadoma until Niewiadoma had to withdraw due to illness.

And we have to tip our hats to Karlijn Swinkels of UAE Team ADQ, who fought mightily to keep the mountains classification jersey after winning it in Stage 2, which enlivened several of the breakaways throughout this year's Vuelta Feminina. We would prefer to see the polka-dot jersey points to be calculated so as to not favor the GC winner, and the last-minute rule change before Stage 8 probably doomed Swinkels' campaign to win the Queen of the Mountains, but Swinkels fought hard regardless, and for that we salute her.

#wwt #womensworldtour #bikegirls #girlsonbikes #Vuelta Feminina #La Vuelta Feminina

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marcelskittels · 1 year ago

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2023 UCI Cycling World Championships Team Time Trial Mixed Relay: 🥇 Switzerland - Stefan Küng, Marlen Reusser, Stefan Bissegger, Elise Chabbey, Mauro Schmid & Nicole Koller 🥈 France - Bruno Armirail, Cédrine Kerbaol, Rémi Cavagna, Audrey Cordon-Ragot, Bryan Coquard & Juliette Labous 🥉 Germany - Jannik Steimle, Lisa Klein, Max Walscheid, Franziska Koch, Miguel Heidemann & Ricarda Bauernfeind

📸 by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

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