Vuelta Femenina: First win of the season! Vollering storms into the red jersey at the mountain finish

The winner of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes showed who is the boss in the ring at the 2024 Women's Vuelta at the first mountain top finish. With an impressive performance, Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx - Protime) not only secured victory on stage 5 after 113.9 kilometres between Huesca and Jaca, but also the overall leader's red jersey, which previously sat on the shoulders of Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike).

Behind Vollering, Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) crossed the finish line in second place, 28 seconds behind Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek). The best German was Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon//SRAM Racing) in a strong sixth place.

It took a very long time to win this season. I'm very happy that it worked out here - Demi Vollering in the winner's interview.

>> All stages of the women's Vuelta at a glance

Vuelta Women 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 5

1. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx - Protime) 3:09:52
2. Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) +0:28
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) +0:28
4. Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez) +0:39
5. Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) +0:41
6. Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon//SRAM Racing) +0:44
7. Riejanne Markus (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:44
8. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:47
9. Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale) +0:57
10. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) +1:08

The current standings in the overall standings

1. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx - Protime) 13:09:45
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) +0:31
3. Riejanne Markus (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:53
4. Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale) +1:10
5. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +1:13
6. Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx - Protime) +1:23
7. Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx - Protime) +1:34
8. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) +1:47
9. Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) +2:07
10. Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco) +2:41

How the 5th stage of the 2024 Women's Vuelta went

Relatively little happened on the way to the first mountain finish of the Vuelta Femenina 2024. A real escape group was unable to break away. Only Lourdes Oyarbide (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) managed to put some distance between herself and the peloton with her attack. By then, a good half of the stage had already been completed. A good 20 kilometres later, the Spaniard was caught by the peloton again.

There were also a few crashes on the fifth stage. The overall leader Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) was also involved in one of these crashes, but she quickly got back on her Cervélo racing bike and continued her ride.

Antonia Niedermaier shows herself

On the penultimate climb of the day, the Alto del Monasterio de San Juan de la Pena (2nd category), the peloton went back and forth. The FDJ-Suez team was particularly active. For example, Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM Racing) briefly broke away slightly. However, this breakaway attempt - like all the other attacks in the hectic finale - was not to be successful.

On the descent from the Alto del Monasterio de San Juan de la Pena, Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), a rider who was one of the favourites before the Vuelta Femenina, crashed. Favourites counted. The 22-year-old Italian reached the finish more than seven minutes behind. The peloton split up on the descent. There were only around ten riders in the first group. On the flat section before the final climb, however, everything came together again before Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) pulled away slightly. But the leader in the mountain classification was also caught again.

Demi Vollering dismantles the group of favourites

On the final climb to the Alto del Fuerte Rapitan, above Jaca, the overall leader Marianne Vos initially had problems and dropped back - as did the German champion Liane Lippert (Movistar) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) a little later. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx - Protime) set the pace in the group of favourites and gradually took them apart. A good 800 metres before the finish, the Dutchwoman also dropped her last companions, Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), and rode solo to victory.

Behind them, Kastelijn won the sprint for second place, a few seconds later Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon//SRAM Racing) crossed the finish line in sixth place as the best German after a strong performance.

Bauernfeind is 12th in the overall standings after not finishing with the first group the day before. Vollering leads the classification and goes into the final three stages of the 2024 Women's Vuelta with a comfortable cushion of around half a minute over Longo Borghini.