Brennauer wins Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta

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Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT) has won the Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta, defending her 2019 victory. The German champion was attentive throughout the criterium-like final stage, sprinting for bonus seconds at the eight intermediate sprints to defend her lead against Lorena Wiebes (Team Sunweb).

After a gutsy solo attack by Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) that moved the Italian champion to second place overall was brought back, things were set up for the final sprint. Wiebes launched early, but Elisa Balsamo (Valcar-Travel & Service) reacted quickly and came around the Dutch sprinter to win the final stage on the line. Marta Bastianelli (Alé BTC Ljubljana) rounded out the stage podium, Wiebes finished in third place overall.

How it unfolded

The final stage consisted of 17 laps à 5.9km on a circuit up and down the Paseos in the centre of Madrid, with eight intermediate sprints, one after every two laps, offering time bonifications of 5, 2, and 1 seconds in the fight for the overall victory. Additionally, 15, 10, and 5 bonus seconds were awarded to the first three riders to finish the stage.

The first intermediate sprint was won by Wiebes ahead of Brennauer and Jelena Eric (Movistar Team). There were some attacks in the laps that followed, but every attempt was quickly closed down by the peloton, and Brennauer retaliated by winning the second intermediate sprint to reestablish her 18-second lead over Wiebes.

On the sixth lap, Jessica Allen (Mitchelton-Scott) was the first rider to get a serious gap on the peloton, and when she was reeled in, her teammate Jessica Roberts counterattacked. Roberts won the third sprint ahead of Wiebes and Silvia Zanardi (BePink) before being absorbed by the peloton again.

The next laps were characterised by a flurry of attacks that were all quickly neutralised by Team Sunweb, with the leader of the Women’s WorldTour U23 ranking, Liane Lippert, being particularly valuable to her team. Eventually, Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) and European champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) initiated a breakaway of eight riders.

As the two strong time triallists were dangerous in the general classification, Sunweb and Valcar-Travel & Service went to the front of the peloton, not giving the break much leeway and bringing it back before the fourth intermediate sprint.

But Longo Borghini soon put in a counterattack, winning the sprint after eight laps ahead of Eugenia Bujak (Alé BTC Ljubljana) and Brennauer. She then established a healthy gap all on her own and kept the move going for more than four laps, winning another two sprints and taking a total of 15 bonus seconds. From the peloton, Brennauer placed second in both of those sprints while Wiebes finished out of the bonus seconds.

As her gap over the peloton had risen to more than 20 seconds, Longo Borghini was now virtually leading the GC. However, the Italian lost much of her advantage on the penultimate lap and was caught with 13km to go.

Van Vleuten, Van Dijk, and Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo) made some final attempts to break up the race, but the peloton was on their wheels immediately. The eighth intermediate sprint with one lap to go was won by Brennauer ahead of Longo Borghini and Van Dijk.

On the final lap, Malgorzata Jasinska (Cronos Casa Dorada) and Eri Yonamine (Alé BTC Ljubljana) briefly broke away but were brought back with 3.5km to go, setting up the sprint. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ceratizit-WNT) led out the sprint before Chiara Consonni (Valcar-Travel & Service) took over 300 metres from the line with Balsamo on her wheel.

Through the last turn with 250 metres to go, Wiebes launched her sprint early from fourth position and catching Brennauer off-guard. Balsamo reacted quickly and jumped into Wiebes’ wheel, coming around her on the final 50 metres to win the stage on the line. Bastianelli was third, and Consonni crossed the line in fourth place cheering her teammate’s victory.

Brennauer finished the stage in seventh place to take the overall victory and kept a narrow two-point lead over Wiebes in the points classification. The leader of the UCI Women’s WorldTour, Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo), was not racing herself but had enough of a lead to win the ranking ahead of teammate Longo Borghini. Lippert won the Women’s WorldTour U23 ranking, wearing the light blue jersey from the first race of the season to the last.