00:01Welcome to stage five of La Vuelta Femenina.
00:04We have a new overall leader in Lotte Capecchi
00:07as the Belgian star finally landed victory in yesterday's fourth stage.
00:13It's really nice to wear a red jersey, but of course we're hunting for victories
00:17and we passed the intermediate sprint and I saw Francisca going for it.
00:22I was like, ah, no, that's two seconds more.
00:25But then, yeah, I just could save a little bit more there
00:27and I knew if I win the stage I have red jerseys, so we focused on that.
00:33Today's outing between Leon and Astorga will be a final chance for the sprinters
00:38before the GC battle takes centre stage on Friday and Saturday.
00:42There's always a chance for sure the next two days are going to be harder for me
00:46with this uphill finish, but also today if you have Lotte Capecchi
00:50and some other really good sprinters here, it's difficult,
00:53but maybe there's also going to be a breakaway
00:56with some movie star riders in today.
01:00Stage 5 features the least amount of elevation gained this week,
01:04just over 1,100 metres.
01:06There are two Category 3 climbs, the last of which tops out with 45k to go.
01:11There is then a long downhill sweep towards the finishing town,
01:14although in true Vuelta style there is a bit of a kick-up to the finish line
01:18in the final few hundred metres.
01:21Five women got away in the first 15 kilometres.
01:24Three Spaniards, a Dutch woman and a French woman.
01:28Annick van Alphen of Fenix Premier Tech.
01:30Sarah Martin of Movistar, the Spanish national champion.
01:34Hedoyo Erasa from Laboral Kutza Fundación Escardi.
01:37Alice Coutinho from the Mayen Monbanamai Pi Squad.
01:40And Marina Garao from Vini Fantini B Pink.
01:44Their maximum gap was almost three minutes,
01:46but by the time live pictures began, it was down to two.
01:50Well, the best placed woman at the front on GC was Coutinho,
01:53more than eight minutes down on Lotta Copecchi,
01:56so no threat to the red jersey.
01:58Coutinho was at any rate more interested in polka dots,
02:01taking a maximum six points on the first climb
02:03to help to defend her team-mate Marin Alion's mountains jersey.
02:08Esti works pro-time on the front of the peloton for Copecchi
02:11as they entered the final 50 kilometres,
02:13with the gap dipping to under two minutes.
02:15The five escapees soon embarking on the second climb of the day,
02:19the Alto de la Garandilla, 3.4 kilometres at around 5%.
02:24Valentina Cavallar setting the pace now for Esti works
02:27and bringing the gap down to around one minute.
02:30Garao losing contact at the front
02:32as the four other leaders pressed on.
02:34Six more points for Coutinho at the summit
02:36to bring her level with her team-mate Alion,
02:38although a better GC position
02:40meant that she was set to take the jersey
02:42at the end of the stage.
02:44Martín, Eraso, Van Alphen and Coutinho
02:47found their lead cut to just 30 seconds
02:49at the start of the descent,
02:50although the peloton then decided to ease off a little,
02:53probably not wanting to catch them too early.
02:56There was then a nasty crash involving four riders,
02:59including one of the sprint favourites, Letizia Paternoster.
03:02She was able to get going again
03:04on her team-mate Josie Talbot's bike.
03:06Marta Horsen's also going down heavily here,
03:09but luckily she was able to continue.
03:12But the breakaway was now down to just three riders,
03:15with Coutinho fading before the intermediate sprint.
03:18Paternoster chasing hard with Talbot
03:20after both of them had apparently got a bike change,
03:22but this was going to be tough
03:24with almost two minutes to make up.
03:27Eraso just rolling through the intermediate sprint first,
03:30but all eyes were on the battle behind in the peloton
03:32between the top two in the points classification,
03:35Franzi Koch and Lota Capecchi.
03:37Lota Capecchi sprints on the left,
03:39the green jersey, Franzi Koch sprints on the right
03:42with 19km to go at this stage.
03:44We are hotly contesting that sprint there.
03:46So Dreene Cabal also got herself involved.
03:49The peloton now playing a bit of cat and mouse
03:51with the women at the front,
03:52and what an effort this was from Paternoster and Talbot
03:55to catch up again with just over 15km to go.
03:58Liv Alulujako looking very hungry
04:01as they gobbled up the breakaway
04:03with 8.5km to go,
04:05immediately setting the pace on the front.
04:07There were some damp roads on the run-in though,
04:10and there was another big crash just before the Flamme Rouge.
04:12We hope that everyone's okay.
04:14The rest preparing for the final sprint
04:16with Capecchi and Paternoster both in the mix.
04:19This is the roundabout at 500m to go.
04:21We go straight on here,
04:23and then we approach our run-in to the line,
04:25and the line of the road is about to kick up
04:27towards the finish line here in Astorga.
04:29Who have got control of things at the front?
04:31The answer is Liv Alulujako,
04:33but now SDWorks ProTime ramps things up,
04:36and Lotta Capecchi is right there in the red jersey.
04:38We're inside the final 200m there,
04:39and the road gets steep now.
04:41Kashi Niviadoma is right up there,
04:43but Lotta Capecchi is launching her sprint in the red kit.
04:46There is the overall leader of the race.
04:48She is sprinting in the middle of the race.
04:49She looks over her shoulder.
04:50She looks at the gap that she's got.
04:52Plenty of time before the line there,
04:54but that was a victory for the teammate,
04:56Misha Bredewald on the line in the end.
04:59Two wins in two days for SDWorks,
05:01but this time it was Misha Bredewald
05:03raising her arms in celebration
05:04after getting the green light to sprint alongside Capecchi.
05:08The Dutch woman going one better than last year
05:10when she was narrowly denied by Marianne Vos.
05:13This her 20th career victory,
05:15and the first at La Vuelta.
05:16Yeah, we had of course a luxury position today with the red jersey,
05:20and yeah, I'm just so grateful for the team
05:23that they had the freedom to share my ambitions,
05:27you know, about sprinting,
05:28and I'm here with Lotta for the sprint,
05:31so you need to puzzle a bit with the stages,
05:34and especially today with the red jersey,
05:36you don't want to throw that away.
05:38That would be really stupid.
05:39So if I had to, I would do the lead out,
05:41but it was not necessary,
05:43and yeah, I'm just super happy to finally get that first victory.
05:47Bredewald taking it just ahead of Capecchi
05:49as SDWorks secured their second straight one-two.
05:52After all of her efforts,
05:53Paternoster was third,
05:55followed by Agnieszka Skalniak-Soyke.
05:58Capecchi increases her race lead to 12 seconds over Koch,
06:01with Bredewald up to fourth ahead of her team-mate Anna van der Brechen,
06:04who was caught up in that late crash,
06:06but is apparently OK.
06:09Capecchi has taken over at the top of the points classification.
06:12She now leads Koch by 11 points,
06:14with Paternoster in third.
06:17Coutinho is the new queen of the mountains,
06:19level on points with her team-mate Alione and Maëva Skibon.
06:26And Gaia Segato is now the best young rider in the race,
06:29sneaking ahead of Laura Deschepa and Marion Bunel.
06:33Well, the sprinting is behind us,
06:35and now it's time for the climbing to begin,
06:37with a summit finish on Les Praeres in Friday's sixth stage.
06:41Join us for that tomorrow, and thanks for watching.
