For the second day in a row, SD Worx-Protime finished first and second on a stage of La Vuelta Femenina. This time, Mischa Bredewold took the victory at the end of stage 5. The former European champion was leading out Lotte Kopecky in the red leader's jersey, but when Kopecky noticed that no one was passing her, she held back, allowing Bredewold to carry her lead-out into a stage victory.
Letizia Paternoster finished an impressive third, after a crash with 26.8 km to go forced the Liv AlUla Jayco rider to chase for over 10 km.
Kopecky will continue to lead the overall classification into the sixth stage on Friday, where the climbers are expected to take over. Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) sits second overall, now 12 seconds down on Kopecky, and EF Education-Oatly's Cédrine Kerbaol remains third overall, 18 seconds down.
Brief stage results
[race_result id=9058 stage_id=90152 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
GC after stage 3
[race_result id=9058 stage_id=90152 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- For the second day in a row, a breakaway of four found themselves ahead of the race, although this time around, the peloton kept them on a tight leash. With the final "flat" finish ahead of them, SD Worx-Protime was not about to hand the stage to anyone but Kopecky (or Bredewold, as it turned out).
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