Petra Stiasny \u2014 the first woman to conquer cycling\u2019s most brutal climb up the Angliru \u2014 did not describe pain, survival, or suffering.<\/p>\n
Instead, she found freedom<\/em>.<\/p>\n For the first time in cycling history, women had raced up the punishing switchbacks of the Angliru, breaking through one of the sport\u2019s last symbolic barriers on a climb synonymous with agony, collapse, and legend.<\/p>\n Five days after her historic victory, Stiasny still sounded stunned by her solo win.<\/p>\n \u201cI still really cannot believe it,\u201d Stiasny told Velo<\/em> by telephone. \u201cFor sure it was a surprise for me.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoyed it. It\u2019s a type of climb I love, steep, hard, and I really felt free. I felt a freedom and joy in me that you don\u2019t feel often in a race.\u201d<\/p>\n On stage 7 of the 2026 La Vuelta Femenina on May 9, the Human Powered Health rider powered to victory atop the Alto de l\u2019Angliru, becoming the first woman ever to win a race on one of cycling\u2019s most feared and mythologized climbs.<\/p>\n The Angliru\u2019s debut marked another milestone for women\u2019s cycling, bringing one of the sport\u2019s most iconic climbs into the women\u2019s grand tours alongside the Tour de France Femmes and Giro Women.<\/p>\n For Stiasny, 24, who had never won a pro race in Europe, it was also deeply personal, a mountain she had been dreaming about long before she ever raced it.<\/p>\n \u201cI never rode it before. For me it was a dream climb. I know it from the history of cycling. It\u2019s a super mystic place. All my idols won up there, like El Chava [Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Jim\u00e9nez], Alberto Contador. For me it was special,\u201d she told Velo<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I saw the men\u2019s Vuelta last year, I thought it would be so nice if women got to do that in the Vuelta.\u201d<\/p>\n La Vuelta organizers granted her wish.<\/p>\n Stiasny \u2014 at a featherweight 5-foot-2 and 93lbs (42kg) \u2014 seemed destined for the fabled colossus of northern Spain.<\/p>\n Freedom was an interesting choice of words for one of cycling\u2019s most grueling and punishing climbs.<\/p>\n Debuted in 1999 as part of a new wave of \u201cimpossible climbs,\u201d the Angliru stands apart as one of the sport\u2019s ultimate challenges. Ever since, it\u2019s been part of the lore of the men\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n And last week, the women took it on for the first time.<\/p>\n Stiasny, a former runner who found cycling after an injury during the COVID shutdown, had become obsessed with the climb months before the race.<\/p>\n \u201cI studied the road book. We looked at it in detail, already months before,\u201d she told Velo<\/em> this week. \u201cI was so looking forward to this stage.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so interested I thought I would just like to come and ride it on holiday. It\u2019s such a special climb that I really wanted to do,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those bucket-list climbs.\u201d<\/p>\n This was no off-season jaunt. It was the queen stage to crown the winner of the 2026 La Vuelta Femenina, one of women\u2019s cycling\u2019s three grand tours.<\/p>\n By the morning of the stage, the nerves never came. Something special was happening.<\/p>\n \u201cCompared to other races, I wasn\u2019t nervous. I woke up and was super happy because today was finally the day,\u201d she said. \u201cI was looking so forward to that stage, to finally ride it.\u201d<\/p>\n For a rider whose only other pro win came on a 9.5km climbing time trial at the Grand Prix Boquer\u00f3n in El Salvador in 2025, the Angliru was an unlikely place to make history.<\/p>\n \u201cI could feel I had good legs. I already felt it in the first part of the stage,\u201d she said. \u201cOn the climb, I had really good sensations.\u201d<\/p>\n Five years into her pro career, Stiasny was about to become the most talked-about climber in women\u2019s cycling.<\/p>\n In her first season with Human Powered Health, she wasn\u2019t intimidated by either the mountain or her rivals. She felt empowered by the opportunity.<\/p>\n Racing against the likes of Pauline Ferrand Pr\u00e9vot, who would later fade on the Angliru, and Anna van der Breggen fills her with respect, not awe.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are super big riders you respect them a lot, they\u2019re the best ones who did so much, so to race with them and against them it\u2019s always an honor for me.\u201d<\/p>\n On roads as steep as the Angliru\u2019s, tactics become brutally simple. Her climbing strengths soon proved decisive.<\/p>\n \u201cOn such a gradient, there is no draft, and that\u2019s actually quite important,\u201d she told Velo<\/em>.<\/p>\n Stiasny followed the early accelerations before settling into her own rhythm, quietly confident, but also cautious about going into the red too early.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw Gaia Realini go to the front on the first real steep parts, and I went with her, and I took my pace at the front. Because you don\u2019t get a draft, I knew I could do what I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, when eventual GC winner Paula Blasi and Van der Breggen pushed ahead for the red jersey battle, she resisted the temptation to follow too soon.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt quickly that if I continued like this I would blow up later, so I continued at my own pace,\u201d she recounted to Velo<\/em>.<\/p>\n One by one, riders began to crack. She kept feeling good \u2014 as good as you can on a nasty climb with 25 percent ramps \u2014 and started to dare to believe as she inched up the gruesome Cue\u00f1a les Cabres sector.<\/p>\n \u201cI kept at my pace and I came back to them,\u201d she said. \u201cFirst I came to Marion (Bunel, later third overall) and to Paula, and I saw them suffering quite hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Then came the decisive move. Aboard her Factor O2 VAM climbing bike, she passed Blasi with just over two kilometers to race.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the start of the steepest section, I came up to Blasi and took the inside on the corner to pass her,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I knew the hardest part was still to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Stiasny was suddenly off the front alone on the hardest, most notorious climb in Spain.<\/p>\n Stiasny understood immediately she could not wait for the finish. Despite being one of Europe\u2019s hardest climbs, there\u2019s actually a short, quick downhill run to the line.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I had to make the difference on the steepest part, because if I arrived with Blasi, I would lose the sprint,\u201d she told Velo<\/em>. \u201cI had to be on top alone if I wanted to win.\u201d<\/p>\n On a climb as steep as the Angliru, even a tiny separation can become a chasm impossible to close. She kept tightening the screws.<\/p>\n \u201cOn climbs this steep, just 10 meters is already a big gap,\u201d she said. \u201cYou cannot just close it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n A week later, she still cannot believe it.<\/p>\n \u201cI always aim for the best possible result, but to be honest, I didn\u2019t think I could really win it,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cI believed I could do a good result or a top 10, not winning it.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing on social media, she captured the feeling in a single line: \u201cIt was not an effort, it was a dance.\u201d<\/p>\n The deeper she climbed up the brutal steeps, the better she seemed to feel.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t often have days where everything comes together \u2014 good legs, good feeling, a climb perfect for you. Maybe once or twice in a lifetime,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was incredible. It was not a pain cave.\u201d<\/p>\n Only in the final meters did fear begin to creep in.<\/p>\n \u201cI only felt that I had won when I crossed the finish line,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt that [Blasi] was just behind me and I was afraid she would catch me.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite her compact climber\u2019s frame, Stiasny unleashed a thunderous roar when she crossed the line alone atop the Angliru.<\/p>\n Not only was it the biggest win of her career, it also delivered the first grand tour victory for Human Powered Health, the U.S.-registered WorldTour team that\u2019s been chasing that dream longer than she has.<\/p>\n This winter, Stiasny visited the Human Powered Health Performance Lab in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she underwent three days of physiological testing. The team\u2019s performance staff used that data all spring to shape her preparation for the Angliru.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means a lot for the team. It\u2019s the first victory in a grand tour,\u201d she said. \u201cThey support me really well. I feel honored. It\u2019s a victory from one person, but everyone works for it \u2014 mechanics, physio, the bus driver, they all stand behind it. There is such a big team behind this victory.\u201d<\/p>\n The triumph also capped an unlikely rise for a rider who only came to cycling during COVID, after injuries derailed her running career and swimming pools closed during lockdowns.<\/p>\n \u201cI started cycling pretty late, during COVID, and I didn\u2019t grow up with cycling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot describe it. It was everything coming together. I do not have the words.\u201d<\/p>\n She grew up idolizing the riders who won on the Angliru. Now Petra Stiasny is one of them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/petra-stiasny-angliru-interview-la-vuelta-femenina-2026\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/angliruhorizon.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated May 14, 2026 10:37AM Petra Stiasny \u2014 the first woman to conquer cycling\u2019s most brutal climb up the Angliru \u2014 did not describe pain, survival, or suffering. Instead, she found freedom. For the first time in cycling history, women had raced up the punishing switchbacks of the Angliru, breaking […]<\/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-1935971","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\/1935971","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=1935971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1935971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1935971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1935971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018We studied every detail\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"L'ANGLIRU,](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275305581-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
How Stiasny rode to victory on the Angliru<\/h2>\n
The first women\u2019s race up the Angliru<\/h2>\n
![\"L'ANGLIRU,](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275306263-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
\u2018It was a dance\u2019<\/h2>\n