La Vuelta Femenina 2024: Despite crash: Lidl-Trek wins team time trial at the start
Thomas Huber
· 28.04.2024
The Vuelta Femenina 2024 kicked off with a team time trial over 16 kilometres, starting and finishing in Valencia. On flat terrain, Lidl-Trek came out on top with a time of 19:20.06 and an average speed of 49.653 km/h. Team Visma | Lease a Bike was only nine hundredths slower, while Team SD Worx - Protime was less than two seconds off the day's win. The top three teams are therefore extremely close together. The German team Canyon//SRAM Racing also put in a good performance and finished fourth, eight seconds behind. Lidl-Trek's Gaia Realini will wear the overall leader's red jersey on the upcoming 2nd stage.
Two Lidl Trek riders fall in the last few metres
For a long time, it looked as if Lidl-Trek could pull out a small cushion in the battle for the overall standings for their captains Gaia Realini and Elisa Longo Borghini. At the halfway point of the race, Lidl-Trek had an eight-second lead over their rivals from Visma | Lease a Bike, and the gap to the other teams was even bigger. However, Elynor Bäckstedt crashed during the final right-hand bend that brought the riders onto the finishing straight. The British rider was in third position and also brought down her team-mate Ellen van Dijk. The riders behind her had to brake, meaning that the lead they had built up was almost gone. The team then saved the remaining lead over time by the skin of its teeth.
La Vuelta Femenina 2024: Results - the top 10 of stage 1
- Lidl-Trek 19:20
- Visma | Lease a Bike +0:00
- SD Worx - Protime +0:01
- Canyon//SRAM Racing +0:08
- EF Education-Cannondale +0:09
- FDJ-Suez +0:09
- Liv AlUla Jayco +0:10
- Movistar +0:12
- Team dsm-firmenich PostNL +0:17
- AG Insurance - Soudal Team +0:32
How the 1st stage of the Vuelta Femenina 2024 went
Team EF Education-Cannondale set the first benchmark time in the opening team time trial, starting as the seventh team. At the finish, they pulverised the previous best time of the Volker Wessels Women's Pro Cycling Team by over 52 seconds.
Only the Liv AlUla Jayco team came close to the strong time of the US team. The Australian team was only just over a second off the interim lead. It was already clear that the gap would not be very big. Team FDJ-Suez, who crossed the finish line a little later with their captain Evita Muzic, also just failed to knock EF Education-Cannondale off the throne.
Decimated Canyon//SRAM Racing with a good performance
The first team to displace EF Education-Cannondale was Visma | Lease a Bike. The Dutch team set the new best time with a time of 19:20.08 and an hourly average of 49.7 km/h. While Team dsm-firmenich PostNL and UAE Team ADQ were unable to pose a threat to the Dutch team, it was Canyon//SRAM Racing that came close to Visma | Lease a Bike. But also because the German team was missing a rider due to Neve Bradbury's illness, it was just not enough for the new fastest time.
Lidl-Trek, on the other hand, narrowly managed to knock Visma | Lease a Bike off first place. The team led by Elisa Longo Borghini rode an extremely strong race and still defended their lead, despite two riders crashing on the final bend.
SD Worx - Protime only third in seconds thriller
SD Worx - Protime was the penultimate team to cross the finish line, finishing just one second slower than Lidl-Trek. They only had to settle for third place - Visma | Lease a Bike was also just faster than Demi Vollering's team. Movistar was the last team to cross the finish line - the team ended up in eighth place.
Looking at the overall standings, the top favourites around Demi Vollering, Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Elisa Longo Borghini are all still close together - only the Pole is just eight seconds behind. As expected, however, there were no initial preliminary decisions today.
