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.
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
- The weather that had threatened to impact the opening Team Time Trial before relenting finally struck for the second stage of the race. Luckily, the riders didn't get as wet as the roads for the first 44 km of the stage. Unluckily for the riders, the rain fell in earnest for the final 50 km of the race.
- A few riders tried to slip away in the early stages of the race, but nothing was successful with multiple teams controlling the pace of the peloton.
- The sprint for intermediate points was hotly contested, with Vos taking top bonus seconds on the line. Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime), Cèdrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) and Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) were also in the mix.
- Neve Bradbury, Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto's lead rider, crashed in a roundabout with 15.5 km to go and unfortunately lost a significant amount of time. The Australian rode into the finish over two minutes behind Vos. More crashes riddled the wet run-in to the finish line, and splits occurred on the lengthy downhill into town under the pressure of Movistar.
- Pauline Ferrand-Prévot put pressure on the remaining peloton ahead of a final corner 150 meters before the finish, and thanks to expert positioning, Vos was first out of the corner. No one could challenge her.
- By finishing second on the stage, Paternoster was able to gain six bonus seconds and take the lead from Van Dijk. She will line up for stage 3 in Barbastro in red on Tuesday.
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.
Did we do a good job with this story?
