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Marianne Vos takes first road win of 2025 at Vuelta stage 2

Marianne Vos takes first road win of 2025 at Vuelta stage 2

Visma-Lease a Bike took revenge on the race after a mishap with the time trial bike check lost them extra time in the opening TTT.

Cor Vos

The women were treated to extremely wet conditions for the second stage of La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es. They rolled out of Molins de Rei, hoping for dry roads, but it was not to be. Crashes riddled the finale, and the Greatest Of All Time, Marianne Vos of Visma-Lease a Bike, was the one to sprint to victory ahead of Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Oatly).

Vos had gained six bonus seconds earlier in the stage, and a further 10 seconds on the finish line, but since Visma-Lease a Bike lost 21" in the opening team time trial, it wasn't enough for her to take the red jersey from Lidl-Trek's Ellen van Dijk.

Paternoster, who was part of Liv AlUla Jayco's third-place team on Sunday, was much closer and as a result of her bonus sprint and bonus seconds at the finish, did take the red jersey at the end of stage 2, two seconds ahead of SD Worx-Protime's Femke Gerritse and three seconds ahead of Anna Henderson of Lidl-Trek.

Paternoster's bonus sprint and second place were enough to put her in red, the first leader's jersey she's had since the 2019 Tour Down Under.

Brief results

[race_result id=9058 stage_id=87609 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]

GC after stage 2

[race_result id=9058 stage_id=87609 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]

How it happened

Once the race started to pick up, the wet roads caused a few crashes on the technical roads going into the finish.

Quotes of the day

Visma-Lease a Bike lodged a complaint with the race organisers following their results in the team time trial. After the race, it came out that Movistar had been late for their pre-race bike check, causing Uno-X Mobility to miss their start by 10 seconds and also held up Visma-Lease a Bike behind them. The Dutch team rolled down the start ramp two riders short. Imogen Wolff was never able to catch up to the team and lost over a minute.

With Ferrand-Prevot eyeing the overall, the 21-second loss was a blow to the Frenchwoman. She was, rightfully, upset after the stage.

In addition to Vos's slower start to the season, her best result was second in Milan-San Remo Donne, the stage victory was a satisfying one for the whole team.

Especially when the team put all the effort in, not only in this race but all season already. After what happened yesterday, we wanted to take that energy into today, and we all committed to it. I'm very happy I could finish it off.

What's next

Adapted from my full Vuelta preview ...

Stage 3: Barbastro to Huesca - 132.4 km - Tuesday, May 6 at 13:40 CET

There are no categorised climbs in the third stage, although there are some uncategorized lumps. The final 24 km is a very gradual rise, with the steepest grades only hitting 4% in the very beginning before levelling off at a false-flat .4-1% for the last 11 km. It is pretty likely that the third stage ends in a sprint. 

With the unclassified climbs in the first half of the stage, we will probably see a breakaway formed of smaller teams. There are too many good opportunities for someone to lob an attack in those first 50 km for nothing to happen. However, some crosswinds are predicted for the final 25 km after the race makes a sharp right and heads towards the finish in Huesca. 

The winds shouldn't be strong enough to split the peloton into pieces, but if the weather predictions for wind speed get any stronger, it is the ideal location for late race splits to happen. 

With a relatively flat stage, Paternoster should be able to hold onto the jersey. That will depend on crosswinds in the final 30 km and how SD Worx-Protime will tackle the stage. The powerhouse team doesn't have the same high GC ambitions they had last year with Demi Vollering on the team, and if Femke Gerritse can take the stage and the bonus seconds, she may be able to take SD Worx-Protime's only red jersey of the race.

Lidl-Trek was clearly keen to get Henderson in the lead. The British rider was mixing it up in the bonus sprint and the finish. She only needs three seconds to take the jersey. Vos needs to find eight seconds to take the overall.

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