Vuelta Femenina: Blasi catches van der Breggen and celebrates Grand Tour victory

The 23-year-old was able to throw her arms up in celebration before the finish line, as van der Breggen was unable to match the pace of her 13-year-old rival early on. The steepest final section of the dreaded Angliru had only just begun when the gap opened up. In the overall standings, Blasi won with a 24-second lead over the Dutchwoman, 49 seconds behind the 21-year-old Frenchwoman Marion Bunel (Team Visma | Lease a Bike).

There is a huge gap behind them. Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi) is fourth overall, 2:31 minutes behind, while Juliette Berthet (FDJ United - Suez), third on the day, is fifth, 2:36 minutes behind. Kasia Niewiadoma (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto), who went into the race as one of the favourites for overall victory, was also unable to keep up on the Angliru and finished eighth. Ricarda Bauernfeind (Lidl - Trek), who had been close to the top 10 the day before, also slipped back to 15th place on the final day.

"I didn't have the best feeling today, I didn't know what was still possible after six days," said Blasi in her winner's interview, but thought of her team first in the greatest moment of her career to date. "They did an incredible job, I couldn't be more grateful." The tactic for overall victory: "Not thinking about what was going to happen. I knew the climb would take about 50 minutes, so I just said to myself: keep going, find your rhythm and as long as you can follow it and keep your rhythm, you won't break down. Then I saw how Anna van der Breggen was struggling and I said to myself: now it's about winning."

Former triathlete Stiasny: "The Angliru is my climb"

For the day's winner Stiasny too, the victory on the Angliru is by far the greatest success of her career, which only began during the corona period. The Swiss rider, who is also only 24 years old, was previously a triathlete and her only previous victory on the bike came in a mountain time trial in El Salvador. "I can't quite believe it yet and I'm a bit speechless," said Stiasny at the finish line. "I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. Ever since it was announced that the Angliru would be part of the Vuelta, I only had one thing on my mind. It was my dream to win here. This is my climb, this is the right climb for me. When we were at the foot of the mountain, I felt free. I really enjoyed it."

While Blasi won the overall classification and also bagged the mountains jersey in passing, Bunel is the best young rider. In the battle for the points jersey, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx - Protime) kept her nose in front of Franziska Koch (FDJ United - Suez), who made up ground at the last intermediate sprint of the tour, but with the Belgian right behind her, was not able to catch up enough to take the green jersey.

Vuelta Femenina 2026 - Results of the 7th stage

>> Vuelta Femenina: duel for the overall classification - who will win the Tour of Spain?

>> Vuelta Femenina 2026: Decision at the legendary Angliru

How the 7th stage of the Vuelta Femenina 2026 went

At 132 kilometres, the longest stage of the tour began with an early mountain classification (3rd category), where the peloton broke up for the first time of the day. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) collected points for the climber's jersey here and thus took a virtual lead, but in the end it was not enough to win the jersey.

Only then, after an attack by Femke Markus (SD Worx - Protime), did a leading group form, which later included her sister Riejanne (Lidl - Trek) and Liane Lippert (Movistar Team). The trio built up a lead of up to four minutes over the course of the day. On the approach to the second mountain classification of the day (3rd category), the gap had already narrowed again, which prompted Moolman-Pasio to make it to the top on her own. She failed and had to settle for one point, but around 20 kilometres later she was left with four on the 2nd category climb.

Then everything prepared for the twelve kilometre long final climb, in which the first six kilometres still had a comparatively moderate gradient, but the second was in double figures throughout. Right where it got really steep, the group of favourites had placed Lippert as the last breakaway rider.

Stiasny clears the field from behind

Bunel attacked from the group around van der Breggen's red jersey with 4.4 kilometres to go. Only Blasi was able to catch the Frenchwoman's rear wheel. The Spaniard quickly closed the small gap to van der Breggen in the overall standings. While the Dutchwoman was joined at the back by her Austrian team-mate Valentina Cavellar, Stiasny, Berthet and Pogacar's friend Urška Žigart (AG Insurance - Soudal Team), Bunel had taken over a bit. With 3.3 kilometres to go, Blasi was alone in front.

However, the chasers were able to reduce their gap together. After a further increase in pace, however, it was only Stiasny who managed to catch Blasi 2000 metres before the finish. But the former triathlete did not stay with Blasi for long, maintained her high pace and was the sole leader 300 metres later. This was not to change until the finish. The 24-year-old was 23 seconds ahead of Blasi.

But she knew that there was no longer any danger from behind and celebrated her overall victory before the finish line. Berthet finished third 20 seconds behind her, and Bunel and van der Breggen crossed the finish line 59 seconds behind the day's winner.