Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) attacked on the final climb of stage 3 of Itzulia Women and soloed to victory, crossing the line with a 44 second gap over a reduced peloton. Thalita de Jong (Lotto Dstny) won the sprint from the peloton for second, while Vollering’s teammate Mischa Bredewold took third.
In winning stage 3, Vollering also clinched the overall GC victory 34 seconds ahead of teammate Mischa Bredewold who held the leader’s jersey at the start of stage 3. Rounding out the GC podium in third was Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL) at 52 seconds, followed very closely by Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco) in fourth at 54” and Elise Chabbey (Canyon//SRAM) in fifth at 56”.
“I’m really happy with this win,” said Vollering afterwards. “It was a hard day for me because I [had] a little bit stomach problems today. But we had made a plan, and it was to attack on the last climb and try to stay away. And if not, then I know I have Marlen in that group behind me, and another, like the rest of my teammates. But I could stay out, and I am really happy with that. Feels good to do a long solo.”
“It’s super nice the way Demi wins and it was also our plan,” explained runner-up Bredewold. “For myself, I think the climb went really well, actually, even better than yesterday (stage 2). And Marlen helped me with the sprint again. I’m really happy to be second.”
How the race unfolded
Stage 3 was a 114.9km circuit starting and finishing in Donostia-San Sebastián, with 1800m of altitude gain spread over three categorized climbs: Jaizkibel (7.9km at 5.6%), Gurutze (2.7km at 5.2%), and Mendizorrotz (4.1km at 7.3%).
The peloton rolled along together for almost 35 kilometers until the first climb, Jaizkibel, when a group of 15 riders got away and 12 of them were able to crest the climb with a 35 second advantage on the peloton.
This lead group of 12 riders increased their lead over the next 40km to more than two minutes: Victorie Guilman (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93), Eleonora Ciabocco (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Carina Schrempf, Inge van der Heijden (both Fenix-Deceuninck), Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime), Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), Urška Žigart (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Claire Steels (Movistar), Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM), Nikola Nosková (Cofidis), Elena Pirrone (Roland), and Laura Asencio (Ceratizit-WNT).
With less than 40km remaining, SD Worx-Protime and FDJ-SUEZ went into action and began chasing, reducing the gap to 23 seconds by the bottom of the final climb, Mendizorrotz (4.1km at 7.3%).
FDJ- SUEZ led the peloton up the climb for their team leader, Évita Muzic, but the pace soon proved too much for her and Vollering and Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL) took over and pulled away on the steepest part of the climb.
Vollering upped the pace and dropped Labous, leaving her to crest the top alone and begin her 28.5km solo ride to the finish.
Behind, a chase group tried to organize to catch Vollering, but her teammates Marlen Reusser and Niamh Fisher-Black kept the group in check and Vollering was able to continue time-trialing to the finish to take the victory and win the overall GC.
