Going into La Vuelta Femenina, Mavi García was the Liv-AlUla-Jayco rider expected to perform best in GC. She said her goal was top five overall. While the 40-year-old Spanish Champion may not be on top form, the team has seen 25-year-old Ingvild Gåskjenn rise to the occasion.
Gåskjenn continued to impress after a breakthrough spring campaign, finishing fifth on stage 7 at the Vuelta Femenina on Saturday, moving to 13th place overall and 5:13 behind race leader Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime). García was in 17th overall, 6:36 back.
“I am so proud of the girls; they protected me all day. We had four riders in the front split which was great and allowed us to cover most of the attacks going towards the end. The girls were just turning all day, keeping the gap, setting me up perfectly for the sprint. The ride deserved better than fifth, but that’s what I had today,” Gåskjenn said after the stage.
Both García and Gåskjenn had missed the front echelon on stage 4, but they and their teammates Georgia Baker and Silke Smulders were more attentive on Saturday.
The team confirmed that they had taken the lessons learned earlier in the week and applied them on stage 7 to great success, with the Norwegian gaining time on Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) and Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), leapfrogging them in the overall standings.
After finishing fourth and fifth in the sprints on stages 2 and 3, Gåskjenn then proved her versatility on the summit finishes on stages 5 and 6, placing in the top 20 both times and continually improving her GC position.
Having joined the Norwegian Continental team Hitec Products (now Coop-Repsol) at age 18 and stayed there for six seasons, Gåskjenn signed with Jayco-AlUla for 2023. In the spring of 2024, she had her breakthrough in the hilly Classics, the standout result being a third place in the Amstel Gold Race.
This week, the 25-year-old is showing that her talents include stages races as well, and she is a rider to watch on the final stage of La Vuelta Femenina from Madrid to the Valdesquí ski resort.
