00:01Welcome to the seventh and final stage of La Vuelta Femenina.
00:06Anna van der Brechen took control of the race yesterday on the steep slopes of Les Praeres
00:10and the Dutch star is now out to finish the job as the riders tackled the famous and fearsome
00:16climb of Angeroo for the very first time.
00:19I actually wasn't feeling so good in the beginning of the race because I still could feel the crash from
00:24yesterday
00:24and I had a muscle which was really painful but it was getting better and better.
00:28So in the end I had the confidence that I should be able to ride normal and finishing like this,
00:36I'm incredibly happy.
00:39Van der Brechen leads by just 18 seconds from Paola Blasi who seriously impressed yesterday
00:44while Marion Bunel, Monica Trinca-Colonel and Evita Muzic are all within striking distance of the red jersey.
00:51This one could go down to the wire.
00:56Today's profile is befitting of a queen stage with well over 3,000 metres of elevation gain.
01:01The riders will tackle three smaller climbs before getting to grips with Angeroo
01:06and it's 12.4 kilometres at an average of 9.7% with pinches at more than 20%.
01:12The iconic climb should give us a spectacular finale in the battle for La Roja.
01:22The riders absolutely hammered their way through the first part of the stage
01:26which meant that by the time the live pictures began, they were already on the penultimate climb, the Alto del
01:32Tenebrado.
01:33Three riders in the breakaway, Liana Lippert in the white of Movistar and the Marcus sisters,
01:39Femke Marcus of SD Works Pro Time and Rihanna Marcus of Lidl Trek, the runner-up at this race two
01:45years ago.
01:45The peloton trailed by about two minutes as they grappled with the Tenebrado, 3.2 kilometres at 9.7%.
01:53A nice little warm-up this for the Angeroo.
01:57Race leader Anna van der Breyken just staying out of trouble towards the front of the red jersey group
02:01with Spanish legend Mavi Garcia pacing for UAE team ADQ and Paolo Blasi.
02:08The gap was down to just over a minute and a half as Lippert and the Marcus sisters crested the
02:13summit.
02:14Ashley Moorman-Passio had taken seven points over the previous climbs
02:18to snatch the lead of the Queen of the Mountains competition
02:20and the South African veteran grabbed another four here, increasing her lead to eight points.
02:26However, with a maximum 20 points on offer at the top of Angeroo,
02:30there was every chance the stage winner would end up with the polka dot jersey.
02:35The peloton eased up on the descent and the gap swelled to over two and a half minutes
02:40as the three breakaway riders approached the intermediate sprint in Las Matas.
02:45A final shootout for the green jersey contenders Lota Capecchi and Franzi Koch.
02:51Who is going to win after Lota Capecchi and Franzi Koch?
02:54These are all important points here, but it's Franzi Koch who just draws clear.
02:59Capecchi set to win that classification by nine points.
03:04The final climb soon loomed into view with Lippert, Marcus and Marcus
03:08still two minutes clear of the bunch.
03:11We will start the climb to Langley route.
03:1412.4km long, averaging 9.7%, maxing out at 23%.
03:22Rihanna Marcus quickly said goodbye and her sister Femke didn't last much longer.
03:26The former German champion Lippert going solo with 11.6km remaining.
03:32Meanwhile, the current German champion Koch was putting in some useful turns for her team mates,
03:36Berte and Musique, before dropping away too.
03:40Unuex Mobility taking it up with Alessia Vergilia pulling for Catherine Ollerud.
03:45But they weren't making huge inroads into Lippert's lead.
03:48She was still about a minute and a half clear.
03:56Pauline Ferron Prevo was dropped with about 8.5km left.
03:59The French woman is clearly planning to peak a little bit later in the season,
04:03no doubt around the start of August.
04:05Unuex still plugging away as they caught the Marcus sisters.
04:08A really impressive effort this from Lippert, a stage winner at the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia.
04:13She was still about a minute clear as they started to hit the steeper slopes.
04:18Gaia Reolini was the first to shake things up from the red jersey group.
04:21It hasn't been a great race for the Italian climber, but she did come 8th yesterday.
04:26Well that move kicked the hornets nest and the favourites responded with Reolini fading
04:31and a group of six moving clear.
04:33Anna van der Breggen and one of her teammates, Valentina Cavallar, Paula Blasi, Marion Bunel, Juliette Berte
04:40and the day's surprise package, Petrus Diasny of Human Powered Health.
04:45They caught and dropped Lippert with about 5.5k to go before the big move came from Bunel.
04:52The acceleration of the 21-year-old French runner Marion Bunel has put Anna van der Breggen under pressure.
04:58She just comes past Juliette Berte at the back of this group and Marion Bunel accelerating out the saddle here,
05:04really relishing these gradients here.
05:07A stinging attack from Bunel with van der Breggen in all sorts of trouble.
05:12Blasi also pulling away from the race leader and clawing her way back to Bunel before attacking herself.
05:18The young Spaniard looking to go one better than second place yesterday.
05:21So Blasi now leading Bunel followed by Stiasny and Berte with van der Breggen fading fast.
05:28The race leader caught and passed by Urschke Zygarts.
05:31Blasi continuing to grind her way up the climb but Angderu was fighting back and it was Stiasny who was
05:37now hunting down the Spaniards.
05:40An incredible performance from the 24-year-old Swiss climber who began the day 13 minutes down in 58th place.
05:47She overhauled Blasi with about 2k to go and the race was on now.
05:54The Spaniard fighting tooth and nail to close the gap but she would have to settle for another second place.
05:59Stiasny soaring away to a sensational breakout victory with Blasi nevertheless set to conquer her national Grand Tour.
06:11Into the final 100 metres and she is about to make history.
06:15The Swiss runner for human powers held Petra Stiasny takes the victory of the final stage here at that Vuelta
06:21Femenina.
06:26Paola Blasi giving absolutely everything to the line here that she believes she has done enough to win La Vuelta
06:33Femenina 2026.
06:43And indeed she had.
06:45Paola Blasi continuing her dream season and taking a superb overall victory for Spain, the country's first at La Vuelta
06:53Femenina.
06:54The 23-year-old proving she is one of the best in the business.
06:59Five minutes into the climb I went like this.
07:01So I said just keep going, keep on your pace and as long as you can go like this you
07:06stay but if you feel you go over your limit I would have stopped but then I started seeing like
07:12Anna van der Breggen struggling and I said let's go for it.
07:15Well she went for it and so too did Petra Stiasny, the first woman in professional cycling to conquer Anglia
07:22Raw.
07:23I told at the beginning of the week to my sports director, you know when I arrive at the Anglia
07:29Raw I feel free, I feel in my place, in my happy place.
07:33This is my kind of climb, this is my gradient. I really enjoyed it to be honest, yeah.
07:39Stiasny taking a memorable victory by 23 seconds from Blasi followed by the French duo Berte and Bunel and then
07:46van der Breggen at 59 seconds.
07:49And that was enough to turn the tide in Blasi's favour, the young Spaniard winning the race by 24 seconds
07:55from AVDP with Bunel completing the overall podium.
08:00Kopecky held off Koch to secure the green jersey by 9 points, adding to her points classification wins at the
08:06Tour and the Giro.
08:09While Blasi doubled up with victory in the mountains classification, pipping Moulman Passio to the polka dot jersey.
08:17Bunel finished as the best young rider by a margin of more than 3 minutes and SD Works Pro Time
08:22ended up as the best team.
08:26It's been a fantastic week of racing and Spain has a new GC start in Paolo Blasi, winner of La
08:32Vuelta Femenina 2026.
08:34Join us again next time and thanks for watching.
