La Vuelta Femenina is already here

The Vuelta a España Femenina finally takes on its own entity with a competition that, throughout this week, will be the first great stage challenge for the members of the women's peloton with a clear name as the rival to beat, the Dutch rider Demi Vollering, undisputed queen of this spring thanks to her excellent classics campaign.

The best cyclists, face to face in La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour

La Vuelta Femenina has been a fact since 2015 when it began to be organized as a one-day race, coinciding with the last stage of the men's La Vuelta, under the name Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta and since 2020 as a multi-stage race under the name Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta. In this edition, the race takes a significant leap when it comes to providing it with its own entity and, on the one hand, it changes its name to La Vuelta Femenina and, on the other hand, it separates in dates from the men's race.

A leap in quality that reaffirms the steady and constant growth of women's cycling which, in turn, offers us increasingly higher level races in a radical evolution, in terms of the professionalization of structures and competition, walking in just a few years the path that took decades for men's cycling to make.

All against Vollering: Favorites to win La Vuelta Femenina

If you want to bet on the final winner of La Vuelta Femenina you'd better save your money as the odds on SD Worx rider Demi Vollering are sure to be tiny and she is currently at a stratospheric level above her competitors.

The Dutchwoman has signed a dream classics campaign, winning Strade Bianche, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, to which must be added her second places in Tour of Flanders and Flèche Brabanzona. Simply spectacular.

Besides, SD-Worx has by far the strongest team, with riders like Fisher-Black, Femke Markus, Marlen Reusser or Kata Blanka Vas. It's a scary line-up.

Despite her discreet start to the season, Annemiek Van Vleuten has to be included as a great favorite for victory. Things have not gone well for the Movistar Team rider at the start of her last season as a professional, but let's not forget that she is the defending winner of the race and last year she managed to win the three big ones: Giro, Tour and Vuelta.

The Dutch rider has spent the last few weeks concentrated at altitude and training hard to turn the situation around and she will certainly be extremely competitive in La Vuelta Femenina. At her disposal she will have a very high level team with riders like Floortje Makaij and Liane Lippert who have shown a great level during the spring, a solid Paula Patiño who is growing as a rider every season and has to be Annemiek's shadow in the decisive moments or a always solid Emma Norsgaard who is good for anything you ask her, in addition to the experience of Aude Bianic as road captain.

In a second step below these two greats we could place Kasia Niewiadoma, an excellent climber who is always there but, in recent seasons has been fighting with the victory, taking without raising her arms since 2019. However, the good sensations she left us in the last Amstel Gold Race seem to recall the Niewiadoma of a few years ago to which we must add a Canyon//SRAM in which stands out the return of Chloe Dygert after her very long injury due to the horrifying cut against a rail that she suffered in the time trial of the 2020 World Championship.

We should also see Mavi Garcia, who has been very competitive in the last races, although her lack of explosiveness makes it very difficult for her to get partial victories. On the contrary, Mavi is a rocky cyclist who is difficult to unseat as she showed last season in the Giro Rosa where she achieved a well-deserved podium.

La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour - Route

7 stages make up the route of La Vuelta Femenina 2023 with a design that leaves for the last three the most selective profiles and where the outcome of the race will be decided.

It starts with a team time trial, a discipline increasingly ignored by the organizers. With its 14.5 kilometers in the surroundings of Torrevieja will serve to start the race although, given its short length, it is not foreseeable that there will be big differences.

From there, the riders will face two practically flat stages that should have a sprint finish with no differences between the favorites.

Perhaps we can start to see things in the 4th stage that will lead the peloton from Cuenca to Guadalajara through a terrain that, without being mountainous, is composed of twisty roads and uncomfortable and broken terrain in which there could be the occasional trap.

Meanwhile, the 5th stage proposes a first high finish with a day that will take the peloton from the Madrid town of La Cabrera, crossing the Sierra de Guadarrama through the Navafría pass, located in the middle of the stage to the foot of the Segovian mountain range from where they will look for the town of Riaza. A few kilometers from this town the cyclists will face the 5 kilometers of the ascent to the Mirador de Peñas Llanas, in the fabulous surroundings of the Natural Park of the Riaza River Sickles, which will undoubtedly establish the first differences between the favorites to take the final victory.

From the Sistema Central the race makes a long transfer to the North of Spain for a penultimate stage of mid-mountain in Cantabrian lands, almost copying one of the great stages of the last edition. The small Cantabrian passes and their intricate roads are perfect terrain for ambushes and to live a day of cycling of many carats in which, for sure, we will see important differences in the classification.

Finally, if the race has not yet been decided, the judge of the race will be a colossus that is living history of La Vuelta as the Lagos de Covadonga. A short day, less than 100 km, with a previous passage through the Collada de Moandi before facing the finish of the Asturian colossus. An improvable stage design but that should be more than enough to decide La Vuelta Femenina in an exciting finish.

How to watch La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour

As usual, Eurosport will fully follow the race, broadcasting the first stage on May 1st from 12:30 p.m. and the rest of the days from 3:30 p.m. on its Eurosport 1 channel as well as on its digital platform and the associated GCN+ application.