Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 1 of the Itzulia Women, triumphing from a sprint among a group of five after a hard stage around Zarautz.
Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Premier Tech) finished second, and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) rounded out the podium.
“Antonia put a super hard pace on the [Etumeta] climb. I was most nervous for that climb today, but I really surprised myself. Climbers that normally beat me easily started going left to right, and I thought, ‘okay, I still feel really good’. That gave me confidence. The cooperation in the group was not so good, but I think the cooperation behind us was even worse. I just had to stay calm and stay in control,” said Bredewold after the stage.
“Riejanne did a smart move [in the sprint] by going really early. I expected that she would do it, but she went even earlier than I thought. But luckily, I could make it on the line,” Bredewold described the sprint.
Due to time bonifications from her fifth Itzulia stage victory in three years and an intermediate sprint, Bredewold leads the general classification by seven seconds on Kastelijn and eight seconds on Markus. Dickson follows at 11 seconds, with Niedermaier at 15 seconds.
“Of course we’re going to try [to win the GC], but I still want to look at it day by day. We’re only here with five riders, so we need to be smart, we cannot control all the day. We will fight for it, but we’ll see day by day,” said Bredewold, cautious about her GC chances.
How it unfolded
Starting and finishing in Zarautz, the 121.3-kilometre stage included five third-category climbs and the second-category ascent of Santa Ageda.
There was no breakaway until Megan Arens (Picnic PostNL), Heidi Franz (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), and Morgane Coston (Ma Petite Entreprise) attacked with 78km to go. Arens soon dropped the other two riders on the Azkarate climb, but the 19-year-old Dutchwoman was reeled in 63km from the finish. Nonetheless, she was awarded the day’s combativity prize.
On the 8km Santa Ageda climb, FDJ United-Suez set the pace, reducing the peloton to around 35 riders. Kastelijn won the mountain sprint, and with the points she picked up on the other climbs, she leads the QOM classification and will wear the white-and-red mountain jersey on stage 2.
The Etumeta climb, 4.5km at an average 7.5%, started with 34km to go. World champion Magdeleine Vallières (EF Education-Oatly) led the peloton until Niedermaier took over, and the German’s high pace shredded the race as rider after rider was dropped.
500 metres from the top, Niedermaier left Dickson, Kastelijn, and Markus behind to go solo. Dickson also briefly distanced Kastelijn and Markus, but the duo soon returned on the descent. Bredewold made her way back on the descent as well and immediately took the front of the group to close the five-second gap to Niedermaier.
A chase group of 17 riders came together behind the front group of five. They were almost a minute behind but slowly reduced the gap to around 45 seconds at the intermediate sprint in Zubialde, 14.2km from the finish, where Bredewold bagged valuable bonus seconds.
On the Garate climb, 4.7km at 4.6% cresting with 7.8km to go, Niedermaier took charge again. She attacked halfway up but was quickly closed down by Markus, and after that, the pace in the front group went down, allowing the chasers to get closer until Niedermaier started to ride tempo again.
An attack by Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) on the steep final kilometre of the climb split the chase group, and seven chasers – Liane Lippert (Movistar), Ricarda Bauernfeind (Lidl-Trek), Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-Suez), Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Vallières, Włodarczyk, and Évita Muzic (FDJ United-Suez) – were only 17 seconds behind the front group atop the climb.
Letizia Borghesi (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) returned to the chase on the descent, and the gap was only 10 seconds with 4.5km to go. Up front, Niedermaier gave it all to get a good GC position by keeping the chasers behind, leading the five frontrunners onto the finishing straight.
Markus opened her sprint with 300 metres to go, with Bredewold and Kastelijn quickly responding. Bredewold took the lead in the last 100 metres, and Kastelijn also came around to take second place while Markus just held off Dickson in a photo-finish for third place.
Results
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