La Vuelta stage 6: Veteran Dutchwoman time trials away from Blasi and Bunel and claims red jersey on notorious wall of Les Praeres.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Updated May 8, 2026 10:34AM
Anna van der Breggen showed the Gen-Zs how it’s 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 to take the red jersey and earn SD Worx-Protime a hat-trick of stage wins.
Overnight race leader and Van der Breggen’s teammate Lotte Kopecky slid out of the classification after the race blew apart on the merciless 4km “wall” of Les Praeres.
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.
Pre-race favorites Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) hemorrhaged time in the tour’s first foray into the mountains.
Niewiadoma lost more than a minute, with PFP a further minute back.
“It was a really hard day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a climb like that before,” Van der Breggen said at the finish.
“The climb was special. It started steep, and it finished steep,” she continued. “I just tried to set a good pace.”
It worked.
Van der Breggen rides into red on savage summit finish
It was a lesson in patience and pacing from Van der Breggen on Friday’s summit finish.
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’t stop until she crossed the line for a bullish victory.
Her metronomic pace neutralized an early attack by Cédrine 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.
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.
Breakout Spaniard Blasi finished second after her relentless chase couldn’t quite close the gap.
Van der Breggen has the advantage on Friday night. But it’s the brutal 30 percent slopes of the Angliru that will decide everything in a winner-takes-all brawl showdown Saturday on La Vuelta’s final stage.