Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) displayed her strength in commanding fashion by winning the fifth stage of La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es. The 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner took the first mountaintop finish of the race after a stinging attack on the final ascent, the Lagunas de Neila. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) finished second on the stage, 24 seconds behind of her former teammate and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) climbed to third, a further 32 seconds down.
With her win, Vollering also moved into the red jersey, 45 seconds ahead of Van der Breggen and 46 seconds ahead of Reusser.
Brief results
[race_result id=9058 stage_id=87612 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]GC after stage 5
[race_result id=9058 stage_id=87612 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]How it happened
- The day started with news that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot would not start the fifth stage. "Not fit enough to continue racing La Vuelta, as since Roubaix, I couldn’t recover fully from my infection in my ankle," the Visma-Lease a Bike rider wrote on her Instagram. "It’s a hard decision to let my teammates and my team, as I love being with them, but it’s the best and smartest one to be able to recover fully and be 100% ready for this summer."
- Again the women had weather to contend with at the start of the stage, most of the peloton lined up in rain jackets for the mountanous stage. A crash in the neutral section of the race took Špela Kern of Cofidis out of the race and also delayed the race start.
- The first attack came in the first kilometre of the stage from Lea Lin Teutenberg. The Lotto rider was determined to get ahead of the race and attacked a few time but wasn't able to get away until 40 km into the stage. Teutenberg slipped away with three other riders: Arianna Fidanza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto), and Julia Borgström (AG Insurance-Soudal).
- The breakaway broke apart as they hit the first ascent of the climb. One by one they were picked up by a rapidly moving peloton led by FDJ-Suez. As fast as they scooped up the breakaway they also shedded riders from the bunch.
- Unfortunately, the red jersey Femke Gerritse went down on the climb. The SD Worx-Protime rider was quick to get back on her bike but the peloton was moving too fast for her to catch up and her time in red came to an end. Gerritse hadn't been expected to keep the lead on the steep Lagunas de Neila finish, but it's a shame to see her defence of the red jersey undone by mishap. She would finish the stage 20 minutes down.
- Vollering's teammates did some serious damage to the group; the list of riders they left in the dust got longer and longer as the climb continued. By the top of the climb it was a select group of climbers left.
- Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) put pressure on the group as the descended to the next climb, along with Canyon-SRAM's Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney. At one point, Kerbaol narrowly avoided coming off her bike but thankfully stayed upright.
- Inside the final 12 km the lead group swelled, with a few teams gaining multiple riders and some pre-race favourites, like Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco), regaining contact before the final climb of the day. With the pace coming out of the bunch attacks started to fly from Mareille Meijering (Movistar) and Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime).
- Meijering was able to get a decent gap in the early parts of the climb with Bredewold hovering between her Dutch compatriot and the group, but with Muzic on the front of the reduced peloton her time out front didn't last.
- As the remaining riders passed the finish of the previous climb and turned to the extra ascent the fractures started in honest. Vollering's teammate Juliette Labous lobbed an attack that got rid of a few riders, and then herself, and as the race ticked into the final kilometres it was Kerbaol with three former and one current SD Worx-Protime riders - Vollering, Niamh Fisher-Black, Van der Breggen and Reusser.
- Vollering finally made her move with 3 km to go and at first Reusser was able to follow the FDJ-Suez rider but she was quickly distanced.
- In the final 1 km the race was in ones, with Vollering in the lead by 25 seconds, chased by Reusser 15 seconds ahead of Van der Breggen who had left Fisher-Black and Kerbaol behind. Behind the three, Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) climbed their way back into the top five.
- Vollering was unchallenged as she comfortably crossed the finish line atop Lagunas de Neila, 24 seconds ahead of second place. With the victory, she took FDJ-Suez's first lead in one of the three major stage races for the women.
Quote of the day
As she normally does, Vollering wore her heart on her sleeve in her brief post-race interview, while cooling down on a trainer.
I am really happy to win this stage and I am proud of the work we did as a team. The last days [have been] a little bit more difficult.
She had very little to say about the stage itself, instead she wanted to call attention to mental health and dedicate her win to anyone who struggles with mental health.
Someone close to me [is going] through a really hard time, mentally, and I see around me people struggle so today I did everything I could because mentally I know I am very strong. Because of my mentality I can win beautiful races, but some people their mentality, their brain is too strong in the wrong direction and they struggle so much with their mental health and it's still such an unkown problem in this world so today my win was a sacrifice for all the people who have a really hard time mentally.
Vollering will no doubt expand upon her words on her social media once she's had a shower and some recovery.
What's next
Adapted from my full Vuelta preview ...
Stage 6: Becerril de Campos to Baltanás - 126.7 km - Friday, May 9 at 11:05 CET
A slight reprieve in between general classification battles, the sixth stage looks to be a great day for a breakaway. It's not super long, only 126.7 km, with a few uncategorised climbs in the final 25 km of the stage and some good opportunities to slip away in the early kilometres. The final climbs aren't completely insignificant, mainly because of where they are in the stage. The steepest bit of all three is only 8%, mostly they are in the 2-6% range, and they are 2.3 km, 2.1 km, and 1.8 km in order of first to last. What makes them more of a factor is that they descend straight into each other. There is some rest on the top of the first two climbs where the road plateaus, but the descents are fast and technical, so the peloton will be stretched out when the next climb starts.
Someone like Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly) could seize an opportunity here to attack if the vibes are in the right place. Or someone like Lidl-Trek's Anna Henderson – a rider who knows how to descend. If the peloton does simply roll over these kickers, the finish is on a 3.5% grade. So it's not really a sprint, but it could be for someone like Lorena Wiebes or stage 2 winner Marianne Vos. In order for it to be a sprint, however, the sprinter's teams will need to back their sprinter on this finish, which doesn't apply to every sprinter in the race.
An additional factor in this stage could be wind. Because of how the course is laid out, with multiple changes of direction, and because it takes place in mostly wide-open areas, crosswinds could make an appearance.
The way SD Worx-Protime have been riding it wouldn't be surprising to see Bredewold on the attack in the latter stages of the sixth day. Vos will want to take another stage win, and would be the top pick if the stage does go to a reduced group. Since Visma-Lease a Bike is down one Ferrand-Prévot, they will be all in for Vos. But hopefully the stage will go to someone who isn't front of mind, those are always memorable moments in stage races.
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