UCI Women's WorldTour: great racing in Spain

La Vuelta España Femenina, Itzulia Women and La Vuelta a Burgos Feminas crowned the stars of the UCI Women’s WorldTour after some intense battles on the Spanish roads.

The events on the UCI Women’s WorldTour calendar this month have provided great reasons to visit Spain, from south to north, to witness stunning performances on beautiful roads and over iconic summits. Three stage races were contested in recent weeks, beginning with the new La Vuelta España Femenina, followed by the intense Itzulia Women, before the final Iberian battles on the classic Vuelta a Burgos Feminas.

These events across Spain crowned three overall winners: rainbow icon Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team Women) won La Vuelta España Femenina, Swiss rider Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx) added to her increasingly impressive list of victories by winning her first stage race at the Itzulia Women, and Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) conquered the historic Burgos venue.

During the 14 days of competitions, other stars impressed, such as the fast Dutch riders Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma), Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) and Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx), as well as the Italian pocket climber Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo).

Vuelta España Femenina: Van Vleuten and Vollering battling it out

After her extraordinary hat-trick of winning the Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition, the Flèche Wallonne Féminine and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, Demi Vollering recognised that claiming these victories on Van Vleuten’s home ground had a special meaning, just before her older combatant retires at the end of 2023. The two Dutch climbers have been battling for the past few seasons and, at 26 years old, Vollering was determined to show that she has what it takes to win against her rival.

At La Vuelta EspañaFemenina, their battle was revived at the top of the summit. Vollering first moved to the overall lead when she narrowly beat Van Vleuten at the Mirador de Peñas Llanas. The next day, the race got more intense on the road to Laredo, where Realini took her first UCI Women’s WorldTour victory, while Van Vleuten powered to the red leader jersey. After having won “La Roja" in the last two editions (previously held during the last week of the men’s Vuelta Ciclista a España), she was able to win again despite Vollering’s attack at the mythical Lagos de Covadonga.

Vollering continued to win two stages of the Itzulia Women and took second place overall before winning the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas, with two more stage wins. Van Vleuten finished 5th in the Basque Country and didn’t race in Burgos. Anticipation is high for their next battle and for the fight for the yellow jersey in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift!

Itzulia Women: Reusser can do it all

Marlen Reusser is a solid member of the SD Worx team: a strong rider whose skills quickly became apparent in the time trials and she proved to very good at controlling the peloton in various race situations. Her qualities recently led to her first victory in a classic (Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields) and have now led to her first success in a stage race, in the Itzulia Women.

After the first two stage wins by Vollering, the Dutch rider seemed to be in prime position to repeat her Basque triple from 2022... But on day three, a very small group broke away on the climbs and the Dutch leader decided to open the door for her Swiss team-mate, who attacked once, then twice, before creating a gap of more than two and a half minutes to win the stage and the overall victory.

“We could just have stayed where we were”, Reusser said. “We could have tried to just defend, but we said no, we want to race aggressively and be the ones to push the other teams to act.”

Vos and Wiebes impressive list of wins

Marianne Vos has collected so many victories across all types of terrain and bikes (road, cyclo-cross, track, mountain bike, gravel…) that she has probably lost track of how many races she has won.

She has claimed 13 Elite rainbow jerseys (and two more as Junior), countless distinctive jerseys as European or National Champion, stage race leader, queen of the mountains, winner of points classification… And this year she conquered the red leader jersey for the first time in La Vuelta EspañaFemenina, where she also won the opening time trial with her team, two individual stage wins and the points classification!

On the demanding roads of the Spanish race, Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) also managed to win the second stage. And a few weeks later, Lorena Wiebes won twice on the roads of Burgos. The Dutch sprinter already has 65 professional wins at an age of 24. Can she compete with Vos’ extraordinary record?