“This is just amazing. I really didn’t expect this" - Femke Gerritse cleans up at La Vuelta Femenina with stage win and Red Jersey on stage 3

Stage 3 of the 2025 La Vuelta Femenina belonged to Team SD Worx - Protime's Femke Gerritse as the 23-year-old Dutchwoman powered to the sprint win ahead of Marianne Vos in a frantic finale, taking over control of the race leader's Red Jersey in the process.

“This is just amazing. I really didn’t expect this," reflected a beaming Gerritse in her post-stage interview afterwards. "I picked up some bonus seconds along the way and thought, ‘Okay, my sprint is solid,’ but the final was so chaotic. Still, I stayed calm. I felt someone coming in the sprint, but I held on. This is just crazy!”

After crashes and echelons made for a frantic day in the peloton, a supposedly calm sprint stage turned into a day of stress for Gerritse and co. “It was a chaotic stage. The first half of the stage had lots of twists and turns and rolling terrain,” she explains. “There was some wind too, but not quite from the right direction to cause splits.”

Once it did eventually come down to a sprint though, Team SD Worx - Protime set up Gerritse perfectly. “I had a perfect lead-out in the sprint. There was a strong headwind right up until we entered the town. We took the front with two kilometres to go. “Anna van der Breggen and Mischa Bredewold were absolutely amazing,” Gerritse concludes. “They just kept going, which allowed me to stay calm. It was truly the perfect lead-out. I’m super proud and incredibly happy.”