Fifth stage of the women's Vuelta : 129.2 km starting from La Cabrera and finishing uphill in Mirador de Penas Llanas. On the Puerto de Navafria, ascent placed at the start of the race, a small group of 24 athletes takes advantage, while the red Vos jersey comes off which, together with Lippert's Movistar, is forced to make a difficult run-up in the following long flat stretch.   The leading group manages to maintain a 30” margin over the red jersey group at the start of the climb that leads to the finish line. 1 km from the finish Vollering accelerates decisively, only Van Vleuten and Bauernfeind manage to keep up with her pace, in the last hundreds of meters the world champion tries, but Demi Vollering is too strong and crosses the finish line first. Gaia Realini , the best of the Italians, finishes with an excellent fifth place at 27” , while the red jersey Vos reaches 2'17”. Vollering leaps to the top of the general classification with 5” on Van Vleuten and 12” on Markus.

ARRIVAL ORDER:

1       VOLLERING Demi Team SD Worx 03:33:25

2       VAN VLEUTEN Annemiek Movistar Team + 03

3       BAUERNFEIND Ricarda CANYON//SRAM Racing + 09

4       MUZIC Avoid FDJ-SUEZ + 13

5       REALINI Gaia Trek-Segafredo + 27

6       CHABBEY Elise CANYON//SRAM Racing +30

7       MARKUS Riejanne Team Jumbo-Visma + 30

8       LABOUS Juliette Team DSM + 30

9       BARIL Olivia UAE Team ADQ + 32

10     GARCIA Mavi Liv Racing TeqFind + 50

Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency