"You can never underestimate Elisa Longo Borghini" - Demi Vollering cautious ahead of Vuelta Femenina queen stage

The Vuelta Femenina will reach it's climax today in the mountains around Madrid. On the eighth day of racing, the peloton will find it's hardest climbs and a summit finish that could determine the overall winner; and Demi Vollering has not let down her guard yet.

"I think the stage suits me well. I haven’t looked into the details as of yet, but it will be a hard stage and that’s nice for me," Vollering said after the finale of stage 7, where she managed to keep up with some of the best in the hard uphill sprint, but saw her gap to Elisa Longo Borghini come down slightly as the Italian rider sprinted to third place and some bonus seconds.

So far, Vollering was superior in both summit finishes and won the difficult ascent to Fuerte de Rapitán in convincing fashion. But in a Grand Tour a lot can happen and a bad day can dictate disaster. Hence, despite the 52-second gap over Elisa Longo Borghini and 1:14-minute gap over Riejanne Markus - her closest competitors - Vollering enters the queen stage very much aware of the danger.

"As for challengers to look out for, I think Yara Kastelijn has already shown how strong she is, as did Évita Muzic yesterday. And you can never underestimate Elisa Longo Borghini, she is always dangerous," the race leader assures.