Vuelta Femenina stage 3: Marianne Vos wins reduced bunch sprint

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) sprinted to victory on stage 3 of the Vuelta Femenina, winning from a reduced bunch after a crash split the peloton in the final 3km of racing.

It was a hectic finale on the run-in to Teruel, but Vos followed the lead-out from teammate Riejanne Markus to launch 150m from the line and surge to victory ahead of Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Olivia Baril (Movistar).

"I'm very happy and satisfied. Yesterday we worked hard and tried hard and we had some bad luck in the final. Today we went all in and all the girls worked really hard for this. Of course it's really nice to be able to finish it off," Vos said at the finish.

"I'm very happy with this win.In the beginning it was very slippery with the wet roads so there were a lot of crashes. Of course you just hope that everyone gets through it okay and in the final I didn't really see what happened. I was just trying to get in a good position to the finish line. Crashes they always says it's part of the race but it's never nice when it happens."

The day’s early attacker Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal) was away solo for over 100km of the 130km stage, with a maximum gap of five minutes, but she was eventually brought back 8km from the finish.

Red jersey wearer Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) finished in the front group to retain her lead in the overall classification by just one second ahead of Vos, thanks to a two-second bonus she picked up during the stage.

It was a hilly day between Lucena and Teruel, and one that looked prime for a strong breakaway to stay away over the rolling terrain, but in the end it was only one rider that went away, which always seemed like a move the peloton could bring back.

The action never really materialised in the bunch, either, with riders perhaps saving their energy ahead of some much tougher climbing to come this week. Instead, things stayed mainly together over the lumpy second half of the stage, with all the sprinters able to survive to the finish and battle it out in a bunch kick to the line.

Visma-Lease a Bike had done a bulk of the work chasing down Benito, but managed to stay in control into the final kilometre, avoiding a crash that saw around half the peloton held up, and allowing Markus to guide Vos through a slightly messy final. Kool had to surf the wheels, and it proved too much of a challenge for the Dutch rider, who is still waiting for her first win of the season.

First taste of climbing but not much action in the hills

The day after the crash-marred stage 2, stage 3 started without a handful of riders, with Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ), Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale) and Sabrina Stultiens (VolkerWessels) all unable to start, as well as Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike) who didn’t finish stage 2.

Despite the fact that the stage looked like a possible breakaway day, it wasn’t a big group that went in the early part of the day. Instead, Mireia Benito attacked solo after 12km of racing, and built up a lead of around a minute. It took another 17km for a counter-attack to go in pursuit of the Spaniard, when a very strong group of six broke free from the peloton, made up of Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek), Eva van Agt (Visma-Lease a Bike), Amber Kraak (FDJ-SUEZ), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Thalita De Jong (Lotto-Dstny).

However, the threat in this group proved too much for the peloton to tolerate, and they soon brought them back before they could catch Benito, leaving the Spaniard alone in the lead once again.

With the peloton now happy to let her go, the gap ballooned out to near five minutes as the road headed towards the hills.

Benito crested the top of the first and only categorised climb of the day alone, and her gap was slightly yo-yoing but staying around the five minute mark. There was no real descent or respite over the climb, just a long, lumpy plateau towards the finish. In the bunch, there was not a huge amount of organisation in terms of a chase as they headed into the final 50km.

With 44km to go, Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) launched the first of the attacks from the peloton, and she got a 20-second jump on the bunch. At the intermediate sprint, Benito and Brown picked up the six and four bonus seconds, whilst race leader Vas picked up the remaining two-second bonus, and the injection of pace meant Brown was brought back soon after the sprint.

Benito’s lead was coming down more steadily at this point, down to 3:25 with 35km to go.

Heading into the final 35km, Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini tested their legs with a little move as things hotted up on the front of the peloton, but things stayed together for the time being. With 25km to go, a small crash saw Daniek Hengeveld (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Teniel Campbell (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Natalie Grinczer (Roland) go down in a touch of wheels as tensions rose in the bunch. Visma-Lease a Bike were leading things in the chase in support of Marianne Vos, helped by Lidl-Trek, but SD Worx-Protime were contributing little.

The gap fell below a minute for the first time with 17km to go, as EF Education-Cannondale also joined the chase. After 110km solo, Benito was finally caught with 7.5km to go and things began to wind up for a sprint. It was a fairly messy run-in, with the teams not particularly organised into trains in the final 5km.

In the final 3km, a crash in the centre of the peloton saw several riders go down and even more held up, as a reduced group of fewer than 30 riders emerged at the front of the race. With so few riders in the group, it was far from a disciplined sprint, with the remaining lead-out riders trying to guide their sprinters and the opportunists trying to take advantage of the chaos.

In the end, though, Markus was able to take it up from the front and deliver Vos through the melée, with the Dutchwoman able to launch from the front and ease to the victory on the right hand side of the road, whilst Kool had to kick from much further back, ultimately costing her. Olivia Baril finished fast in third, with Vas tucked in the group to hold onto her red jersey.