The gaps at (or near) the top of the GC standings were not huge going into the final stage, but no one could touch Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) on the summit finish that brought stage 8 and the whole Vuelta a España Feminina to a close.
- A 13-rider breakaway went clear fairly early in the stage with many of the big teams and key GC riders represented by strong domestiques, including Elena Cecchini of SD Worx-Protime and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike).
- The plan was clearly to catapult escapees into the valley between the two significant climbs, but with other teams putting on the pressure in the bunch and Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) beginning to attack the breakaway on the Puerto de la Morcuera’s (13.2 km at 6.3%) lower slopes, it was all change on the first of two Cat.1 climbs.
- The last remaining breakaway riders – Gigante, QOM Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) and Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek) – were left to dangle a handful of seconds up the road until the first attack came from the reduced bunch just outside 36 km to go (3.5 km from the summit), Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) leapfrogging from Swinkels, over Gigante and up to Chapman as the trio disintegrated.
- The Australian was unable to hold on for long, and the Dutchwoman was solo 3 km from the top.
- Rooijakkers soon stretched her gap to over 30 seconds, but the lights seemed to go out fairly fast – there was another stiff headwind to contend with – and she was regained by the Grace Brown-led pack.
- FDJ-Suez was dominant on the pointy end of the bunch, keeping the pace high all the way to the top, where Évita Muzic popped off the front in the final few-hundred metres to net maximum mountains points. Building on her stage win on Friday, Muzic then moved into the provisional lead of the mountains classification, which also laid down her team’s cards prior to the final climb; the Frenchwoman would have to beat Vollering to the top once more if she was to seal the jersey.
- The reduced favourites group (only about 15-20 riders) reformed over the top and into the valley, Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM) briefly acting as a carrot after a blistering descent from the young German. Meanwhile, out the back, Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime) had had a tricky descent, which left her expending additional energy before the crucial finale.
- Swinkels then attacked again, shortly after Bauernfeind had been re-absorbed, and got a head start on the final climb.
- FDJ-Suez was back in control by the foot of the climb to Valdesqui (12.4 km at 4.9%), and Swinkels was caught with 9 km to go, the pace and the pressure increasing all the while.
- Brown was the instigator once more, and it’s thanks to the Liège-Bastogne-Liège-winner that Vollering was isolated early and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) put in difficulty, while Muzic was looked after.
- However, though Vollering didn’t need to race anything other than defensively, the red jersey-wearer was not waiting around to be attacked, so she launched her own move a long way from the line.
- With Brown done, Muzic was quick to react, along with Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM), both of whom had been carefully marking the red jersey’s wheel.
- Vollering’s first move stretched out the group and ended the day for a few, while others appeared glued to her wheel, so she tried an optimistic flick of the elbow to see if anyone else wanted to play. When there was no response, Vollering decided she’d go it alone.
- Vollering went solo just inside 6 km to go and soon found a gap of about half a minute as a small chase group formed behind her. Third-overall Riejanne Markus and stage 6 winner Muzic, who was sitting sixth overall, were in there with race-makers Kastelijn and Bauernfeind, and they settled in to a race for second, albeit slightly complicated by Markus’s dual objective of the overall – currently sitting third behind Vollering and Longo Borghini, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider saw the chance to take a step up into second with the Italian struggling on the mountain.
- Even Vollering looked like she was fighting with the gradients and headwind towards the top, but the SD Worx-Protime leader was able to enjoy the finish, beaming to the small crowds amassed at the summit and raising her bike in celebration just beyond the line.
- 29 seconds later, Muzic out-sprinted Markus for second place, but the weary Dutchwoman had succeeded in advancing up the GC standings, making the final podium Vollering, who won by 1:49 to Markus, herself 11 seconds ahead of Longo Borghini.
Stage top 10
Final GC top 10
Quotes of the day
After celebrating victory at the summit, Vollering described how the race played out on the final climb, along with the conditions the riders faced on the way to the finish.
“I was a bit nervous because this last climb was difficult because there was headwind and it was not super-steep. There was one part where we turned a bit and had tailwind, there I thought: ‘I need to attack and I need to make sure I have a gap’ so that the rest also will have headwind when chasing me back. I could extend my gap and stay out.”
Brief analysis
- For the second year in a row, Vollering takes two stage wins away from the Vuelta España Feminina and completes a hattrick of GC podium finishes after third and second in 2022 and 2023. On paper, it’s a nice 3-2-1, but it’s not as neat as it looks if you remember ‘pee gate’ from last year’s edition. After taking the stage win and the red jersey on stage 5, Vollering was left behind when she stopped for a call of nature, resulting in a hard and ultimately futile chase that saw her lose over a minute. She hit back with stage victory the following day, but it was not enough, and Vollering had to settle for second behind Annemiek van Vleuten. Now she can finally put that tricky chapter behind her.
- Évita Muzic and her FDJ-Suez team – shout-out for Grace Brown – boasted far greater confidence after the Frenchwoman’s brave victory on Friday, her first at WorldTour in four years. The 24-year-old has by no means come out of nowhere, her first career victory was gained at the Giro d’Italia Femminile in 2020, but she’s not the most prolific winner in the peloton. In the past few days, however, Muzic has confidently played the role of key GC player with the support of a strong and determined team, evidently more motivated than ever.
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