The fourth stage of La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es was rapid, with many attacks throughout the day that all failed to stick. Only multi-time World Champion and Giro d'Italia winner Anna van der Breggen managed to successfully separate herself from the peloton. Van der Breggen slipped away on the descent into the finish and rode across the line solo. Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) crossed the line 12 seconds later in second and third, respectively, at the front of a small chase group.
Despite being dropped on the second categorised climb of the day, Van der Breggen's teammate Femke Gerritse regained contact with the main chase group and was able to hold onto her red jersey ahead of stage 5. She leads Van der Breggen by only four seconds, but the fifth stage will hand the general classification over to the true climbers.
Brief results
[race_result id=9058 stage_id=87611 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]GC after stage 4
[race_result id=9058 stage_id=87611 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]How it happened
- Many riders tried, but no one was allowed off the front of the peloton in the early stages of the race. Coop-Repsol, Uno-X Mobility, and Lotto were particularly keen to get someone up the road before the first classified climb.
- The peloton was all together to tackle Alto del Moncayo, and Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) took maximum points over the Category 2. Ghekiere won the Mountains Classification at both the Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2024. Évita Muzic (FDJ-Suez) crested the climb second, and UAE Team ADQ's Erica Magnaldi third.
- The peloton remained complete for the intermediate sprint, which was again a heated competition between Gerritse and Vos. Interestingly, Vollering also got involved in the sprint. The Tour winner was perhaps interested in picking up security seconds after last year's Tour de France Femmes. Gerritse took maximum seconds ahead of Vollering, and Vos was able to take third despite starting much farther back.
- As the race approached the final climb of the day, Puerto de El Buste, teams lined up with 22 km to go as if they were preparing for a race finale. The pace was high enough to drop Gerritse, who had been able to hold on to the peloton until the top of the Cat 2 climb earlier in the stage.
- Movistar alternated attacks on the climb but nothing got far from FDJ-Suez, who were setting the pace. Muzic crossed the top of the climb first, taking maximum points and the Mountain Classification jersey.
- After the top of the second QOM the peloton had a further 12.3 km to ride to the finish, much of it was downhill. Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) tried one of her trademark descending attacks, but it was actually Van der Breggen's move that stuck. The former World Champion accelerated away from the select group with 6.8 km remaining in the stage.
- Behind Van der Breggen, Mischa Bredewold helped Gerrtise regain contact with the "peloton," so SD Worx-Protime was perfectly positioned for another stage win either from Van der Breggen out front or from Gerritse if FDJ-Suez was able to catch the Dutchwoman.
- Averyone not in an FDJ-Suez jersey looked to the French team to chase and they weren't able to bring back Vollering's former teammate Van der Breggen, who crossed the line 12 seconds ahead of Vos, who sprinted to second and Vollering crossed the line third. Gerritse finished in the group of 18 and remains in the lead for the start of stage 5.
Quote of the day
One of the things that SD Worx-Protime does best (or to their detriment at times) is go into the race with a fluid plan. In the case of Wednesday's stage, the race plan hinged on how hard the final climb was. But as it turned out, the Dutch team was in the perfect position yet again with Van der Breggen's attack and Gerritse in the group.
We knew it could be a hard last climb. We wanted to be there with Mischa [Bredewold], Gerri [Femke Gerritse] and me, but in the end it was a really small group. The strategy was actually to try with Gerri again.
Van der Breggen was able to gain some seconds on her GC rivals but stage 5 will be a real test for the newly-out-of-retirement rider.
It’s going really well, but tomorrow will be honest. The speed on the climb was hard, and you saw how small the group was, so it’s going to be fighting. But this is in the pocket, so we had some really good days to start with.
What's next
Adapted from my full Vuelta preview ...
Stage 5: Golmayo to Lagunas de Neila - 120.4 km - Thursday, May 8 at 13:45 CET
Day five is the first of two major tests for the general classification riders. The seventh stage will be a real kick in the pants, but the fifth stage is the first mountain top finish of the week.
There are two categorised climbs on tap for the fifth stage, however, they are actually the same climb done twice. After the first ascent, the peloton will take a left and do the climb again, but for the second ascent, they will continue past the turn to climb for another couple of kilometres.
The climb - Lagunas de Neila - has featured in both the men's and the women's Vuelta a Burgos before, and both Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen have won atop it. Vollering took victories twice on the ascent, in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, she won the fourth and final stage by 17 seconds ahead of Juliette Labous, however, the Frenchwoman went on to win the overall. In 2023, the climb featured in the final stage yet again, this time Vollering won the stage and took the overall from her teammate Lorena Wiebes. In 2021, Van der Breggen out-sprinted Annemiek van Vleuten at the top of Lagunas de Neila and took the stage and the overall of the race by only three seconds. In third that year was none other than Van der Breggen's teammate ... Demi Vollering.
The climbing starts roughly 94 km into the 120.4 km stage. This Cat 2, Alto de Rozavientos, is 4 km in length and averages 8.1%. The bottom slopes are gradual, in the 5-7% range, while the final kilometre is 11-14%. It's on these steeper slopes near the top where selections will be made, especially considering where the road goes next.
The remaining riders will descend from Alto de Rozavientos, flip a U-turn, and do the same climb again. Again, the hardest part of the climb is the top, but this time the 11-14% grades won't end after only a kilometre. Once they pass the familiar turn, the road will settle down for only about 1 km before it kicks again to the finish. Again, the slopes here are 11 %+, with a 17% stat thrown in, you know, for fun.
What will be interesting at this stage is how hard it is for teams to hit the first ascent of the climb. Looking back at the Giro d'Italia Women in 2024, when the race tackled two ascents of Blockhaus (it was a very similar situation, with the first ascent cutting the climb short and the second passing the turn they had done previously to continue to the summit proper), the peloton was hesitant to really hit both climbs with passion and what ended up happening was a relatively boring first climb. Fireworks didn't fly until well into the finale of the second ascent. We could see much the same race here, but it really depends on how riders think they will be able to take on Demi Vollering.
The general classification in terms of pre-race favorites is still very close. Van der Breggen sits in second, with Vollering 17 seconds behind her. Riejanne Markus of Lidl-Trek, who was second to Vollering in last year's Vuelta, sits fifth overall two seconds behind Vollering. Markus' teammate, Niamh Fisher-Black, is on the same time.
Monica Trinca Colonel of Liv AlUla Jayco is a bit of a dark horse in seventh overall, five seconds behind Vollering. Then there's Vollering's teammates Évita Muzic and Juliette Labous, both eight seconds behind their leader. One of them will no doubt drop out of the conversation after Thursday's stage.
Cédrine Kerbaol, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Liane Lippert, Marlen Reusser, Nienke Vinke, Yara Kastelijn, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, Thalita de Jong and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot are all within a minute of each other and Vollering and co, although there were cracks in Ferrand-Prévot's armor on the second climb of the third stage.
After stage 5, there will be a true shake up in the general classification, but one day before the stage it's looking like we're in for a Van der Breggen vs. Vollering showdown.
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