Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta: Silvia Persico wins uphill sprint on stage 4 as Annemiek van Vleuten holds overall lead

Silvia Persico (Valcar-Travel & Service) won the uphill sprint from a reduced peloton on stage 4 of the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, taking her first Women’s World Tour win, after Anna Kiesenhofer (Soltec Team) came agonisingly close to a stage victory following a 160km long, solo attack.

Resplendent on her gold bike, marking her out as the Olympic road race champion, Kiesenhofer repeated her exploits in Tokyo, attacking from the gun and carving out an advantage that topped out at almost ten minutes, propelling her into the virtual race lead.

In the latter half of the race, however, Kiesenhofer’s advantage tumbled and she was eventually caught just one kilometer from the line as Persico ultimately proved the fastest from the peloton, beating Demi Vollering (SD-Worx) in second and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) in third.

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) retained her 1:51 overall race lead over Longo Borghini.

“Today I didn’t feel good in the first part of the day but my teammates stayed with me all day so I’m very happy,” Persico said after the stage. “I started thinking in my head today must be good because this is my last race with this team. I take this victory and I’m very happy and thank you to my teammates because they were really fantastic. Today was a long stage and we started not too fast, the first two hours were not very fast and Anna did all day in the breakaway. We caught her in the last 1.5k so congrats to her and I’m very happy for this victory.”

“For sure for my team [there is another chance for victory tomorrow] and I hope for my sprinters Chiara [Consonni] and Karolina [Kumiega] and I hope I can finish this season with another victory for us because it has been an amazing year for us.”

How it happened

By far the longest stage of the race with a 17km neutral zone and 160.4km of racing, Stage 4 traversed rolling terrain from Palenica to Segovia. After an opening section filled with uncategorized climbs, the road flattened out before a final category 4 ramp 2.5km long at 3.7% less than ten kilometers from the finish line and an uphill kick to the finish.

Kiesenhofer (Soltec Team), racing as part of a professional team for the first time since 2017, set out on one of her now infamous solo breakaways and steadily built up a sizeable advantage that reached almost six minutes over the solo chaser Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health) and seven minutes over the peloton with just over 100 kilometers to race.

👊 @annakiesenhofer está poniendo patas arriba la 💜 #CERATIZITChallenge22 ‼️

Está a sólo 1️⃣ minuto de ser la líder virtual de la carrera.

🏁 110KM TO GO

📸 @LinoEscuris pic.twitter.com/5MhJ6Qrxll

— CERATIZIT Challenge by La Vuelta (@ChallengeVuelta) September 10, 2022

That gap continued to grow and just ten kilometers later, Kiesenhofer had amassed a large enough advantage to move into the virtual race lead. Back in the peloton, Van Vleuten deployed her Movistar team to the front and even took turns on the front herself in an attempt to chase down the Austrian.

With 84 km to race, however, disaster struck as Kiesenhofer crashed but she remounted and continued her solo ride with still an almost ten minute lead over the peloton.

As Kiesenhofer’s lone escape began threatening other GC positions, the pace intensified in the final 50 kilometers with the addition of other teams to the chase and the peloton finally started eroding the Olympic champion’s advantage so that Van Vleuten retook the virtual race lead.

On the long, straight roads that cut through the Spanish plains, the familiar cat-and-mouse chase between the breakaway and peloton unfolded. Kiesenhofer’s advantage slipped beneath four minutes with 25 kilometers remaining and she bowed her head in concentration, flicking her eyes towards her bike stem where reminders of her alter ego as a mathematician were painted.

With a stage win for the peloton back in range, teams in search of this goal also moved to the front including Canyon-SRAM, FDJ Suez-Aquitaine and Trek-Segafredo.

Kiesenhofer labored up the only categorized climb of the day and by the time she reached the summit, her advantage was just 2:06 and the pace in the peloton was such that multiple riders found themselves dropped.

#CERATIZITChallenge22 🇪🇸

Less than 10km to go and the gap is falling, it’s now 1’34” ⏱

We’re helping with the chase back in the peloton 💪 pic.twitter.com/41j9Iru8V8

— Team BikeExchange-Jayco (@GreenEDGEteam) September 10, 2022

The peloton strung out again on the gravel section eight kilometers from the finish while Kiesenhofer’s lead slipped to under a minute, and on the long drag up to the line, she glanced behind her to see a charging peloton that flew past her with just a kilometer remaining.

Liane Lippert (Team DSM) kickstarted the sprint with a speculative, powerful attack 700m from the finish that drew out a small group from the rest of the peloton. Longo Borghini was next to move to the front, and Persico sat in her compatriot’s wake before sprinting out of it to take an impressive victory.