Marianne Vos sprints to La Vuelta Femenina Stage 3 victory after Visma-Lease a Bike masterclass
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Updated 30/04/2024 at 16:07 GMT
Visma-Lease a Bike's Marianne Vos secured victory on Stage 3 of the La Vuelta Femenina with a powerful sprint following great work by her team. Vos finished ahead of Charlotte Kool (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Olivia Baril (Movistar). The red jersey remains in the hands of Blanka Vas. Stream the cycling season live on discovery+
‘Job done!’ – Visma-Lease a Bike lead Vos to Stage 3 victory
Marianne Vos roared to victory on Stage 3 of La Vuelta Femenina after fine work by her Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates to set up the winning sprint.
Vos powered over the line first from the bunch finishing ahead of Charlotte Kool (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Olivia Baril (Movistar). Her third stage victory in the Vuelta equals Annemiek van Vleuten’s record – but Vos will have a chance to add to her tally, with Wednesday's stage another one for the sprinters.
Blanka Vas (Team SD Worx) held onto the leader’s red jersey, courtesy of picking up two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, her lead over Vos standing at just the one second overnight. But while it was all about Vos at the finish, there was a different rider who spent most of the afternoon in the limelight.
That was Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal), who started the stage 41’’ down on the red jersey. She got clean away by herself after just 12km, and her lead grew and grew, over five minutes at one stage with the peloton happy to let her go it alone – perhaps forgetting her pedigree as an individual time trial specialist.
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Mireia Benito of Spain and AG Insurance - Soudal Team attacks during the 10th La Vuelta Femenina 2024, Stage 3 a 130.3km stage from Lucena del Cid to Teruel
Image credit: Getty Images
She came across the top of the category 3 Alto Fuente de Rubielos still alone, with a lead of 4’50’’. Behind, when the peloton finally reached the summit, Arlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) surged to the front to pick up more Queen of the Mountains points.
The peloton behind seemed perfectly content to leave Benito out front for the long haul, taking things easy – although that didn’t mean the racing was incident-free, with Kim Cadzow (EF Eductaion-Cannondale) and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM Racing) coming together in a messy crash that saw the German pushed into the gutter.
Speaking of crashes, four riders didn’t make the start line - Anna Henderson (Visma Lease a Bike), Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ), Clara Emond (EF Education-Cannondale) and Sabrina Stultiens (VolkerWessels). Emond fractured her elbow in Monday's late crashes, while Henderson suffered a broken collarbone.
Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) did start the stage but soon called it a day, also suffering with an elbow injury sustained at the end of the second stage.
Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) briefly looked like she was going to go on an opportunistic attack with 34km to go after riding off the front to grab a bottle and finding herself with a gap, but after a few seconds of effort, she gave it up with Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) quick to recognise the danger. That was about as exciting as the GC battle got, with the favourites content to keep their powder dry for now.
Teniel Campbell (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Deniek Hangeveld (Team dsm-firmenich) and Natalie Grinczer (Roland) went down with 25km to go, as the pace started to quicken and the chase began to intensify. Unfortunately for the Roland rider, that crash was the end of her involvement in this year’s Vuelta.
With 20km to go, Benito’s lead was down to 1’28’’ as Visma started to organise themselves and pull on the front of the bunch for Vos. Team dsm had managed to keep Kool in touch as well, something they didn’t manage on Monday – with Jackson also in the mix, as a bunch sprint beckoned.
Benito was eventually caught at the 7.5km to go mark, having been out front, alone, for an impressive 111km. Her reward, other than some very sore muscles, was the combativity award.
All of which led to another sprint finish, but while there was another late crash, it didn’t take out any of the favourites. They were all there at the end to contest the sprint, with Vos wheel surfing before pulling out and opening up her sprint with a few hundred metres to go.
The Dutchwoman wasn’t going to be caught once she hit the front – winning her third Vuelta stage in style, and able to raise her hands in triumph well before the line.
"Very happy, and satisfied," Vos said at the finish. "Yesterday, we already worked hard and tried hard and then we had some bad luck in the final. Today we went again all in."
Vos will have another chance to add to her tally of stage wins, with tomorrow’s route a reasonably flat one. While it should be a day for the sprinters, there is a high chance of crosswinds, so it won’t be a straightforward day for anyone.
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