The opening stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas was dominated by a two-rider breakaway, 19-year-old Oda Aune Gissinger (Hitec Products-Fluid Control) and 20-year-old Irene Cagnazzo (Vini Fantini-BePink). The duo spent almost 110km at the front of the race and would earn appearance on the podium, however, it would be a veteran sprinter to show them how a race is won.
The pair were reeled in 17km from the finish to set up a bunch sprint. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) earned the victory. Since Wiebes is so dominant in the sprint, breakaways may be the only option for other teams to find success in the first three days of the race.
Elyne Roussel (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93) had attacked with Cagnazzo and Gissinger, but the Frenchwoman couldn’t follow the pace on the first classified climb, leaving only two riders in the breakaway.
“The plan for today was always to go in the break. The cooperation was good; we shared the work all the way and found a good rhythm. I went for the mountain sprints which always gave me a little gap, but other than that, we stayed together,” Gissinger told Cyclingnews after the stage.
Cagnazzo was awarded the stage 1 combativity prize after Gissinger won all three mountain sprints that came in the first half of the stage, putting the Norwegian into the mountain jersey in her Women’s WorldTour debut.
“I opened the sprint the first time, and she started the sprint on the second climb. On the last climb, I attacked and dropped her a little bit earlier in order to secure the points,” the Norwegian described the fight for the red jersey between the two escapees.
Having collected 18 points, Gissinger will keep the mountain jersey for at least another day as there are no classified climbs. The 18 points on offer on stage 3 and the 12 points available on stage 4 before the finishing climb make it possible for a rider to collect enough points to offset the 30 points awarded to the stage 4 winner and win the mountain classification outright – but it would require at least one more breakaway.
“It would be great to keep the jersey, and I will try to do that. But I have to take it day by day and see what will be the best way to race,” said Gissinger.
The intermediate sprint with 10km to go saw Alena Ivanchenko (UAE Team ADQ) and Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Mobility) go head-to-head. In the slipstream of her teammate Dominika Włodarczyk, Ivanchenko narrowly beat the Finnish champion to take two bonus seconds, putting her in the white jersey for the best U25 rider.
The fight for the white jersey may provide some suspense on stage 2. With several other sprinters like Megan Jastrab (UAE Team ADQ), Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Babette van der Wolf (EF Education-Oatly), Lucía Ruiz Pérez, and Carys Lloyd (both Movistar) all just two seconds behind Ivanchenko, the classification is wide open.
That is something which cannot be said about the sprint finishes where Wiebes looks likely to take a second, and maybe even third, consecutive victory in the upcoming days.
