Itzulia Women stage 1: Mischa Bredewold takes victory in bunch sprint

Mischa Bredewold sprinted to victory on stage 1 of Itzulia Women to extend SD Worx-Protime’s 100 percent record of stage wins in this race.

After controlling things all day, a powerful lead-out from Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering brought the European champion into the perfect position in the finale, leaving Bredewold to just come round her teammate and seal victory.

Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) took second after a strong effort from her team, whilst Vollering finished fast enough to secure third on the line in front of Josie Nelson (dsm-firmenich PostNL).

The only real breakaway of the day was only away briefly in the final 60km, and was brought back on the final climb as a large group went to the finish together. With relatively few big sprinters in the race, plenty of riders tried to attack in the final 10km, but SD Worx-Protime shut everything down before delivering Bredewold to victory in the final sprint.

Courtesy of bonus seconds on the line, Bredewold now leads the race overall ahead of Sierra and Vollering, with Vollering picking up some key bonus seconds in only the first day of racing.

A controlled day in the Basque hills

On the flat start out of Vitoria-Gasteiz, a break did not go in the first part of the stage, despite plenty of attempts in the first 25km. The peloton hit the first climb of the day to Oleata all together, and Olivia Baril (Movistar) took maximum points at the top in front of Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) as the climbers started to test themselves.

Everything stayed together on the descent and back onto the flat, with the peloton – mainly led by SD Worx-Protime – keeping things very much under control in an uncharacteristically break-free start to the day. After 65km of racing – almost half the stage – an attacker finally got a gap as Petra Stiasny (Fenix-Deceuninck) got a jump on the group, soon followed by Stine Dale (Coop-Repsol).

They relatively quickly built up a lead of a minute, and a rider who had been trying to chase on was soon swept up by the peloton, leaving the two out front.

This situation didn’t remain stable for long, though, with Dale soon dropping Stiasny on the second climb of the day, who returned to the bunch as the gap was shrinking. After the descent, Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) attacked out of the peloton and joined Dale with around 50km to go, and as a duo they managed to rebuild their advantage out to 1:20.

Heading into the final 30km, the attacks and aggression started rolling in the peloton, with things threatening to break up but splits not quite materialising. SD Worx stepped back from controlling the bunch, with Lidl-Trek and FDJ-SUEZ taking up the duty.

On the final Itziar climb, the peloton ramped up the pace and after a few tentative accelerations, Demi Vollering soon came to the front of the group, which really strung things out. They caught Dale on the climb, and Cavallar soon after on the descent, as Marlen Reusser took up pacing and things slightly regrouped in the bunch.

On the flat, Movistar led out Baril to take bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, in front of teammate Sheyla Gutiérrez and Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL). With a sprint looking possible, the teams who didn’t have a fast finisher were trying to make things more selective, but SD Worx were marshalling things as the race entered the final 10km, with Vollering in particular always amongst the action.

In the final 5km, the attacks never really let up, until the lead-outs began into the final kilometre. Movistar took things up first, but into the final 750m Reusser and Vollering came to the front with a powerful pace that strung out the group. After Reusser swung off, Vollering led-out her teammate all the way into the final few hundred metres, with Bredewold just coming round her at the last minute to beat Sierra, as Vollering held on to take third and some key bonus seconds.

Going into stage 2, Bredewold leads the GC by 4 seconds to Sierra, 6 to Vollering, 7 to Baril and 10 to the rest of the race.