Vuelta Femenina: Gaia Realini wins stage 6 as Annemiek van Vleuten takes race lead with long-distance attack
Cycling
On the even of the queen stage the Vuelta Femenina blew up. Demi Vollering was caught out early in the day and Annemiek van Vleuten attacked the race from far. She took the race lead as Gaia Realini took the stage win.
It was a very complicated stage at the Spanish race, one where not many would expect big gaps, but that turned out to be an incorrect prediction. There was no breakaway in the day seeing a very high pace from early on, and a split saw Demi Vollering being distanced.
The race leader was under pressure and Movistar took full advantage of it. In the first of the two climbs of the day the large peloton was led by the Spanish team, and Annemiek van Vleuten immediately went on the attack as the gap was over a minute. She went solo when she made her move.
In the second ascent of the day Gaia Realini of Trek - Segafredo attacked from the chasing group as the race was in chaos and managed to join up front. Vollering, who was part of a third group, was able to bridge across to the main chasing group but could not take time on Van Vleuten.
The Vollering group was able to cut the gap slightly in the flat run-up to the finish as several riders put in the effort, however the win was in front. The World Champion did the whole work ahead of the finale, and Gaia Realini managed to sprint to the win in the end. Loes Adegeest sprinted to third in the peloton 1:03 minutes back.
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