SD Worx-Protime dominate stage 5 of La Vuelta Femenina, Kopecky gifts win to teammate

Stage five of the Vuelta Femenina has been won by Mischa Bredewold. The Dutch SD Worx-Protime rider opened the sprint for red jersey wearer Lotte Kopecky — but the Belgian gifted the win to her teammate. Kopecky finished second, with Letizia Paternoster in third. An otherwise uneventful stage was marred in the finale by a significant crash, which brought down Anna van der Breggen among others.

After three days of bad luck and near-misses, it had finally come good for Kopecky. The Belgian won stage four in a powerful sprint — this time without being relegated, as had happened after stage two — and the victory brought her the red jersey as overall race leader. Setting off on stage five as the new front-runner, she went in search of more success.

The fifth stage was the flattest of the entire race. Aside from two inconsequential climbs midway through, there was little drama between León and Astorga. It fell to a group of five riders to inject some excitement, one of whom was Aniek van Alphen — the cyclocross specialist from Fenix-Premier Tech and the sole Dutch representative at the front.

She was joined by Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Alice Coutinho (Mayenne Monbana My Pie), Marina Garau (Vini Fantini-BePink) and Spanish national champion Sara Martín (Movistar). The break was never given much more than two minutes: pure sprinters may have been in short supply in Spain, but the faster finishers in the bunch were not about to let this rare opportunity slip.

After the last climb, Van Alphen, Martín and Eraso were the only survivors — Garau and Coutinho had been shelled out. The trio managed to hold on a little longer, but the peloton, driven by SD Worx-Protime and Human Powered Health, gradually turned up the heat. Kopecky swept up some bonus seconds and points at an intermediate sprint, though the leaders were still allowed to push on ahead for a while.

Letizia Paternoster, one of the main sprint challengers to Kopecky, was caught up in a crash. The Italian from Liv AlUla Jayco was able to return to the peloton. With eight kilometres to go, Van Alphen and company were caught, and the stage settled into the wait for the sprint.

As on stage four, the finish line would arrive on a nasty little kick, with the final 200 metres rising sharply. Movistar, Liv AlUla Jayco and Visma | Lease a Bike all pushed to the front in the lead-out. A big crash in the final kilometres — involving Anna van der Breggen among others — disrupted the finish, before Mischa Bredewold led Kopecky to the perfect position. The Belgian, though, let her Dutch teammate take the glory.