Emphatic win for Jackson as Vas takes La Roja
April 29 th 2024 - 17:28 [GMT + 2]
She had warned that a stage win was her goal for the week, and she got it already on Monday. Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) took an excellent victory at Moncofa, finish town for the 2nd stage of La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es, that she celebrated on her trademark, emphatic style. The Canadian national champion defeated Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) and Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) in the reduced bunch sprint that decided a stage that was defined by its wet weather conditions. The 10” bonus seconds scored at the intermediate sprint and the finish line enabled Vas to take the Red leader jersey from Lidl-Trek’s Gaia Realini. The Hungarian national champion will have to defend it tomorrow on a lumpy stage between Llucena and Teruel.
144 riders took the start in the 2nd stage of La Vuelta Femenina 24 by Carrefour.es, which covered 118,3 kilometres from Bunyol to Moncofa, at 14:18. Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Angela Oro (Bepink-Bongioanni) and Marine Allione (Winspace) went clear after 5 kilometres, creating a breakaway group that will be joined by Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health), Valerie Demey (Volkerwessels) and Audrey de Keersmaeker (Lotto-dstny) at kilometer 32. Lourdes Oyarbide (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Andrea Casagranda (Bepink-Bongioanni) also jumped from the peloton, yet failed to bridge back and were swept back in when Team dsm-firmenich PostNL took the reins.
Visma speeds up in the Oronet climb
The biggest gap for the six-woman breakaway was 3’00”, clocked at kilometer 42. From then on, their advantage gradually decreased as they rode under the mild, intermittent rain down to the mere 30” they retained at the foot of the Puerto de l’Oronet (cat 3, km 79,9). As the road started to rise, Visma | Lease a Bike hit the front of the bunch and accelerated, catching the break at Serra (km 76). UAE Team ADQ’s Karlijn Swinkels was first across the summit once Visma had whittled the peloton down to 50 riders and dropped most of the pure sprinters, including dsm-firmenich’s Charlotte Kool.
Hectic approach to the finish line
No team wanted to take the reins of the reduced peloton after the Oronet downhill, and Volkerwessels’ Anneke Dijkstra took advantage of this to go clear solo and pass first through the intermediate sprint at Alfara de la Baronia (IS, km 91), where Blanka Vas (Team SD Worx-Protime) took 4” bonus seconds that put her in the virtual Red jersey. Dijkstra was reeled back in with 21 kilometres to go as Movistar Team, EF Education-Cannondale, Liv-Jayco-AlUla and Visma | Lease a Bike took turns to pick up the bunch’s pace and keep a chasing group with Kool at bay. The wet, treacherous roads on the way to Moncofa provoked several crashes that affected relevant riders like Movistar’s Emma Norsgaard or Lidl-Trek’s Lizzie Deignan, leaving no one badly hurt yet creating a hectic scenario for the final sprint. EF Education-Cannondale made the most of it, leading out the sprint for an Alison Jackson that didn’t fail to land an emphatic victory.
