Straight from the flag drop today the pace was hot at La Vuelta Femenina, with a swirling and strong wind combined with open roads resulting in crosswind chaos long before TV coverage started. On a long false-flat drag the bunch blew to pieces with Juliette Labous making it into a front group of 19 for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, with the rest of the riders in groups behind. From there, the tempo stayed on throughout the afternoon and although the gap at one point fell to just 35 seconds, it soon ballooned out again and it was clear Labous’ group would stay away. In the finale, Labous suffered a slow-release puncture but managed to continue riding, eventually sprinting to ninth place on the day and moving up on GC ahead of the mountainous days to come.
Speaking after the stage Labous expressed: “It was a fast day directly from the start because of the wind. It almost immediately then went into echelons on a hard part with an uphill, false-flat section, and I could make it into the front. Some of the other GC riders were dropped so the pace stayed on from other teams with numbers. Apart from that nothing else really happened, so I just stayed focused in the group. In the last four kilometres I had a front wheel puncture but the sealant worked and I still had some air in it, so I could follow and didn’t lose any time. For the GC I think we can be happy with today and now we head towards the tougher climbs.”
