Riders We’re Watching at the First-Ever Vuelta Femenina
La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es is the first-ever edition of a seven day women’s stage race in Spain, but it's not a new race. Previously called Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, it's been a five day women’s race accompanying the men’s Vuelta a España. The new iteration, La Vuelta Femenina, is an exciting step for women’s cycling.
While most one-day races now have women’s iterations, stage racing has lagged woefully behind. However, with the success of races like the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and the longer-running Giro Rosa, it seems that the cycling world has realized it truly is time to focus on gender parity—and is slowly nudging up the number of days that women have to race as a result.
Now, this is the race that kicks off stage racing season for women, while the men's iteration of the race will come in late summer. La Vuelta Femenina begins May 1 and runs through May 7—and here, we’re sharing the riders we’ll be watching.
The course is similar to the Tour de France Femmes last year, with three relatively flat stages, then a mild climbing stage, with three bigger climbing stages to finish the week. This means sprinters will likely be leading the charge for the first half, while climbers will claw back minutes in the overall towards the second half of the race.
Expect to see big shifts in race leaders throughout the week—and keep an eye on the nine Spanish continental teams that are entered in the race. While it’s unlikely any of those teams will pull off an overall win, there could be some stage wins or podiums from these teams.
At the moment, the start list remains largely unpopulated for many of the big teams, including Team Jumbo-Visma, Canyon//SRAM Racing, UAE Team ADQ, and other teams who have a few riders listed, but not full rosters (as may be the case for Trek Segafredo). So, we’ll add to this list as we know more, but as it stands, here’s who we’re watching:
Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar Team)
When it comes to stage races, it’s hard to bet against Annemiek Van Vleuten. While she may not make herself known in the early stages, expect to see her in the mix when the climbing begins. However, there’s a chance that she’s saving her legs for later in the season. As she approaches retirement at the end of the season, she may be targeting some of the later season races. Then again, she might see finishing her career with a trio of stage race wins (Vuelta, Giro, Tour) as the best possible way to finish her illustrious career.
Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx)
At the moment, Vollering’s fellow race-winning teammates Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes aren’t on the start list for La Vuelta—Kopecky is focusing on track for the spring, and Wiebes has said she wants to focus on 'win quality’ over quantity. That’s going to leave Vollering facing serious pressure to perform, but certainly, she is more than capable of rising to the occasion. She’s likely riding high after sweeping the Ardennes Classics, ending with a win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Juliette Labous (Team DSM)
Labous is definitely a rider to watch in a stage race. Most recently, she’s finished second at the The Women’s Tour, fourth at the Tour de France Femmes and second at Vuelta a Burgos Feminas. She has solid time trialing abilities that will certainly help on stage one, but she’s also capable of keeping up on climbs to stay in contention for overall GC as other sprinters fall behind. While she hasn’t had any big wins yet this season, that could be because she’s been waiting for this.
Gaia Realini (Trek - Segafredo)
Lizzie Deignan specifically came back from maternity leave in order to be on the start line for this race, so she’ll certainly be planning on being in the mix. However, it’s likely she’ll be a supporting player rather than having teammates work for her as she makes her comeback. (That said, we’re sure she’ll go for a win if she can!) More likely, she’ll be supporting a teammate, though with only four riders on the roster including her, Amanda Spratt, Shirin Van Anrooij, and Gaia Realini, it’s hard to say who will be leading the charge. This could be Realini’s time to shine, as she’s had some stellar stage race results in the past and most recently made her way onto the podium at Flèche Wallone.
Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM)
After finishing third in the inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Niewiadoma showed that she's a rider to watch when it comes to stage racing—though she already had an impressive number of GC victories before that. She's already had a few top five finishes at one-day races this season, so she's certainly on form, and it seems like the longer a race gets, the better she does. Her teammate Chloé Dygert will also be starting her road season at this race, and will likely be a key player in the team's tactics over the course of the week..
Kristen Faulkner (Team Jayco AlUla)
The Jayco team has said they’re taking a two-pronged approach to the race with Faulkner and Spanish climber Ane Santesteban acting a team leaders. While racing in her home country might give Santesteban an edge on the climbing stages, Faulkner’s up-and-down season and debacle with a disqualification after finishing third at Strade Bianche may give her the mental grit she needs to pull of some stage wins.
We’ll certainly be seeing other contenders for the overall win coming from Jumbo-Visma, UAE Team ADQ, EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, and FDJ - SUEZ—so stay tuned, and make sure you’re ready to watch a week of great racing action starting May 1!
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