{"id":1925526,"date":"2026-05-08T16:21:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1925526"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:21:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:21:57","slug":"la-vuelta-femenina-anna-van-der-breggen-schools-young-rivals-on-brutal-summit-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1925526","title":{"rendered":"La Vuelta Femenina: Anna van der Breggen Schools Young Rivals on Brutal Summit Finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275183127-scaled.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Updated May 8, 2026 10:34AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Anna van der Breggen\u00a0showed the Gen-Zs how it\u2019s done with a masterclass solo victory on stage 6 of La Vuelta Femenina.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old comeback queen powered away from 23-year-old Paula Blasi and 21-year-old Marion Bunel on the first summit finish of La Vuelta on Friday to take the red jersey and earn SD Worx-Protime a hat-trick of stage wins.<\/p>\n

Overnight race leader and Van der Breggen\u2019s teammate Lotte Kopecky slid out of the classification after the race blew apart on the merciless 4km \u201cwall\u201d of Les Praeres.<\/p>\n

Van der Breggen is now 18 seconds ahead of Blasi overall as La Vuelta heads toward an epic final showdown on the Angliru on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Pre-race favorites Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot (Visma-Lease a Bike) hemorrhaged time in the tour\u2019s first foray into the mountains.<\/p>\n

Niewiadoma lost more than a minute, with PFP a further minute back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really hard day. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen a climb like that before,\u201d Van der Breggen said at the finish.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe climb was special. It started steep, and it finished steep,\u201d she continued. \u201cI just tried to set a good pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

It worked.<\/p>\n

Van der Breggen rides into red on savage summit finish<\/h2>\n
\"Van
Nobody could hang with Van der Breggen on stage 6 of La Vuelta.<\/span> (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a lesson in patience and pacing from Van der Breggen on Friday\u2019s summit finish.<\/p>\n

The two-time world champion and 7-time winner of La Fleche Wallonne set the pace at the base of the rain-soaked slope and didn\u2019t stop until she crossed the line for a bullish victory.<\/p>\n

Her metronomic pace neutralized an early attack by C\u00e9drine Kerbaol (EF Education Oatly) and rode young upstarts Blasi (UAE ADQ) and Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike) off her wheel a few hundred meters later.<\/p>\n

Van der Breggen got her decisive gap on the most severe 25 percent ramps at around 3km to go. From there, it was an unfaltering slow-motion time trial toward victory.<\/p>\n

Breakout Spaniard Blasi finished second after her relentless chase couldn\u2019t quite close the gap.<\/p>\n

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Van der Breggen has the advantage on Friday night. But it\u2019s the brutal 30 percent slopes of the Angliru that will decide everything in a winner-takes-all brawl showdown Saturday on La Vuelta\u2019s final stage.<\/p>\n

La Vuelta Espa\u00f1a Femenina stage 6 results<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n
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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Updated May 8, 2026 10:34AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/la-vuelta-femenina-stage-6-van-der-breggen-into-red\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275183127-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated May 8, 2026 10:34AM Anna van der Breggen\u00a0showed the Gen-Zs how it\u2019s done with a masterclass solo victory on stage 6 of La Vuelta Femenina. The 36-year-old comeback queen powered away from 23-year-old Paula Blasi and 21-year-old Marion Bunel on the first summit finish of La Vuelta on Friday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1925526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}