Vollering wins opening stage at Itzulia Women

Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) won stage 1 of the inaugural Itzulia Women stage race after being very active in the final. The Dutchwoman beat Pauliena Rooijakkers (Canyon-Sram) and Kristen Faulkner (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) to the line in Labastida.

Elise Chabbey (Canyon-Sram) attacked over the top of the last classified climb and was joined by Vollering, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (Team SD Worx), and Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo) on the descent.

When this group had been caught, Faulkner counterattacked 16 km from the finish and got a small gap. Rooijakkers and Vollering went on the chase with 13 km to go and quickly bridged to Faulkner. They increased their advantage to 41 seconds at the finish line.

On the final kilometre, Rooijakkers attacked with 200 meters to go and entered the steep finishing straight first, but Vollering fought back and won the stage ahead of Rooijakners and Faulkner. Liane Lippert (Team DSM) won the sprint of the peloton for fourth place.

“It was a hard race,” Vollering said after the finish. “I was in the first group after the downhill, but we couldn’t make it into the final. Then I thought, ‘ok, now I need to try to recover and then find a good moment to attack again’.” good moment and then Pauliena came with me. She is a nice person to have in the break, she is always riding with you.”

Vollering had led the group of three on the final kilometer and said that Rooijakkers’ move didn’t surprise her: “I expected Pauliena to make it a long sprint as she already went before the corner, but I tried to keep my head cool and try to get over her again, and I made it. It was a really nice finish, I like it, so it was good for me. It is nice to be in the leader’s jersey tomorrow.”

Vollering leads the general classification with a six-second advantage on Rooijakkers and ten seconds ahead of Faulkner. Due to bonus seconds, Brand is fourth at 50 seconds, Moolman Pasio sits in fifth place at 52 seconds, with Lippert leading a large group of riders at 53 seconds.

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