Charlotte Kool beats Marianne Vos and Chloe Dygert in sprint finish to win Stage 2 of La Vuelta Femenina

Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) outsprinted Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) to win Stage 2 of La Vuelta Femenina.

Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) looked like she might take the stage after launching a long-range attack down the home straight.

But she was caught near the line by Vos and then Kool came round the outside in the closing metres and snatched the win.

Vos takes over the red leader’s jersey and holds a one-second lead over Dygert, with Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma) a second further back in third.

Towards the middle of the 105.8km stage, Andrea Casagranda (Bepink), Catalina Anais Soto (Bizkaia Durango), Iurani Blanco (Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi), and Coralie Demay (St Michel – Mavic – Auber93 WE) had formed an early breakaway group.

With 60km remaining, they had a one-minute advantage on the peloton behind them. When the gap was then closed to around 30 seconds, Demay and Blanco took an opportunity and broke free from Casagranda and Soto. Demay looked to have been involved in an early tumble with a visible cut to her leg and a few holes in her jersey.

Shortly after the two were dropped, they were caught by the peloton. For the 10km that followed, the group increased and decreased the time gap between them and the peloton, as it dropped from around 30 seconds down to within 15 seconds before the group slowed and took an opportunity to conserve their energy.

The gap soon closed again and with 39 km to go, the time had been reduced to only 10 seconds. Before they caught the front two riders a crash near the front of the peloton took out a number of riders as the road made a left turn, including Claire Steels (Israel Premier Tech Roland), Gladys Verhulst (FDJ-SUEZ), Silvia Persico, Karolina Kumiega (both UAE Team ADQ). All were swiftly back on their bikes, and at the same time the riders who had escaped the crash unscathed managed to catch Demay and Blanco.

For the remaining 30km the group stayed together which set them up for a bunch sprint finale. Before the finish line was reached however, more points were up for grabs with an intermediate sprint and a queen of the mountains climb.

With 28.3km remaining, Femke Markus (Team SD Worx) took the maximum points available for the intermediate sprint in San Miguel de Salinas while her sister Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma) was closely behind her in second. Dygert ultimately predicted her overall finish for the stage with third in this early sprint behind the two Dutch riders, before her and Riejanne Markus launched an attack but they were unable to create any distance from the group.

A series of attacks from Canyon//SRAM followed, the first from Kasia Niewiadoma who had Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx) closely behind on her wheel before a second from Elise Chabbey. Neither separated the group who remained together for the 20km that followed.

Next up were the queen of the mountains points up for grabs at Puerto de Rebate with 18km remaining. Jade Wiel (FDJ-SUEZ) passed the summit first picking up maximum points which earned her the queen of the mountains jersey from Vos. Alba Teruel (Laboral Kutxa Fundacion Euskadi) was next, shortly followed by Niewiadoma. As the final few kilometres ticked by, it was clear that the result would be decided by a sprint finish. With 10km to go, Team DSM looked organised and set themselves up well with getting Kool to the line first as their focus.

As they approached Pilar de la Horadada, multiple teams pulled the peloton forward including Team DSM, Team Jumbo-Visma, and Team SD Worx. With the bunch still together with 5km remaining, they began to set their sights on the finish line.

After they crossed under the flamme rouge, Riejanne Markus accelerated with 700m until the finish line. It was then that Dygert launched her long-range attack from 500m out. She did well to hold on to a slight lead for a couple of hundred metres, but her chance of a stage win was soon quashed by Vos and Kool. As the two Dutch riders powered to the line, Kool managed to get round the outside of Vos, only slightly, but it was enough to secure the win. Dygert came in just behind them in third after her impressive effort only metres previously.

Kool became only the third Dutch rider to have won a stage at La Vuelta Femenina after Annemiek van Vleuten and Lorena Wiebes. She is also the third youngest rider to win a stage at the same event, at 23 years and 361 days.

In the general classification rankings, second was enough for Vos to earn the red jersey from team-mate Anna Henderson. Kool’s sprint provided her with the green points jersey while Wiel’s QOM points unsurprisingly earned her the QOM jersey. Blanco was rewarded for her early breakaway efforts with the combativity jersey.

Tomorrow’s stage will be another one for the sprinters as the peloton travel 157.8km from Elche de la Sierra to La Roda in what is the flattest but longest stage of this year’s La Vuelta Femenina.

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