Van Vleuten victorious in Emakumeen Nafarrakoa

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Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) won the Emakumeen Nafarroako 1.1. For the second year in a row.

After breaking away solo from a select group of six with 4.2km to go the European Champion looked to have a clear run to the finish in Lekunberri. Demi Vollering of SD Worx came close to catching her compatriot on the final descent but the Movistar rider held Vollering off in a protracted sprint for the line. Elisa Longo Borghini of Trek-Segafredo took third.

The riders battled heavy rain in Navarra on the first of two back-to-back, hilly one day races in the region as they traversed the 128.3km course. The brutal conditions meant that only 38 of the original 153 starters finished the race.

The race was animated throughout with favourites attacking from as far out as 55km to go. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (SD Worx) was the first rider to make a move on the San Cristobol climb riding away from the front group and getting a gap that never managed to exceed 40 seconds.


On the sixth categorised climb of the day, Goñi, Elise Chabbey of Canyon-SRAM started to close in on the South African, bringing Sara Martin of Movistar with her. On the descent, the two chasers made contact and were soon followed by Ruth Winder (Trek-Segaredo) and Mikayla Harvey (Canyon-SRAM) with Ane Santesteban (Team BikeExchange) and Erica Magnaldi (Ceratizit-WNT) close behind.

The six riders stayed in front but chasing behind them was a select group including Van Vleuten, Longo Borghini and Vollering, along with Mavi Garcia (Ale BTC Ljubljana), and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope).

With 22km to go, it was Garcia who put in a huge attack, taking Martin with her and eventually dropping the Movistar rider who looked to be working for Van Vleuten. With 17km to go the chasing group caught Garcia after which Van Vleuten put in the first of what would be three attacks which saw Uttrup Ludwig, Garcia, Winder, and Santesteban distanced.

A few kilometres later came the second of Van Vleuten’s attacks, this time she broke clear with Vollering on her wheel. Given Vollering’s proven ability in a sprint, Van Vleuten was keen to rid herself of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner and tried to attack her with 11.6km to go but to no avail. Behind, the group with Harvey, Longo Borghini, Cavalli, and Moolman Pasio was closing in.

Once the group caught, it was Moolman Pasio’s turn to attack once again but her effort was not enough to keep the group at bay and sparked a number of counters including Harvey, who tried to go clear on a flat section before the two small climbs before the finish.

On the penultimate climb, a chase group including Katrine Alerud, Winder, Uttrup Ludwig, Santesteban, Garcia, caught the leaders just as Moolman Pasio put in another attack and they were immediately distanced again.

With 4.7km to go Longo Borghini put in a dig but never managed to get a gap. The Italian’s move was immediately countered by Van Vleuten in her third and definitive attack of the day which quickly became a 10-second gap.

The race looked to be over as Van Vleuten appeared to have a definitive gap as she reached the descent to the finish but with just over 1km to go Vollering was closing in. Wise to the danger of the fast-finishing Vollering, Van Vleuten opened her sprint early and only just managed to hold off the SD Worx rider to the line to take the win for the second year in a row.

The racing continues tomorrow as the riders head to Pamplona for 124.8km of racing through more hilly terrain.