La Vuelta Femenina: Aussies to watch

With the spring classics season wrapped up, attention now turns to the big summer stage races.

For the women’s peloton, the action kicks off in Spain with the newly renamed La Vuelta Femenina, which is up from five stages to seven.

After the Giro Donne and Le Tour de France Femmes, it’s the next biggest race on the UCI Women’s World Tour calendar.

A small contingent of five Aussies will line up at this year’s race, which starts tonight (AEST) and finishes on May 7.

Team SD Worx, with general classification leader Demi Vollering, is arguably the team to beat. Vollering had a formidable spring classics season and comes into the stage racing season at the top of her game.

And despite a lacklustre start to the season, two-time winner and world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) cannot be ruled out as a favourite.

Read on to see where Aussie hopes will lie for La Vuelta.

About La Vuelta Femenina

The 7-stage race starting in Torrevieja and finishing in Lagos de Covadonga consists of:

• 1 Team Time Trial
• 3 Flat stages
• 1 Hilly stage
• 2 Mountain stages

The Aussie Riders

Amanda Spratt – Trek Segafredo

With Elisa Longo Borghini ruled out due to illness, the Aussie veteran will be part of the team’s two-pronged attack for the general classification. Spratt will be the logical team leader alongside young Italian climber Gaia Realini.

Spratt in action at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Photo: Billy Ceusters

Spratt has had a positive start to the season and shown good form during the spring one-day races.

Look for the Sydney climber when the route heads into the mountains on Stages 5, 6 and 7, where she will be looking to stick with the likes of Vollering and Van Vleuten, or getting ahead of the race in a breakaway.

Georgie Howe and Amber Pate – Team Jayco AlUla

Neo-pros Howe and Pate will play support roles for their joint team leaders American Kristen Faulkner, and Basque climber Ane Santesteban.

Pate in the breakaway during Paris-Roubaix. Photo: Thomas Maheux

Both Aussies have been runners-up in the Australian time trial championships and will be in their element in the opening team time trial, aiming to propel their Australian squad to a stage win. We saw Pate in the breakaway at Paris-Roubaix, so hopefully she and Howe get more opportunities to race aggressively on one of the hilly stages.

Elizabeth Stannard - Israel Premier Tech Roland

After transferring from the dysfunctional Zaaf Cycling Team, Stannard will bring confidence into La Vuelta Femenina with her new team after a top-10 finish at the one-day race La reVolta over the weekend. Riding for team leader Claire Steels for general classification, look for Stannard to try to get into a breakaway.

Mauve Plouffe – Team DSM

In her first year with Team DSM, the young Aussie track Olympian will be lining up in support of her team’s GC rider Juliette Labous for the mountains, and to position their star sprinter Charlotte Kool when it comes to the pointy end on the flat stages. As a superb pursuiter on the track, Plouffe will play a key role in limiting losses for Labous in the opening team time trial.

Watch all the action from the La Vuelta Femenina on SBS On Demand from May 1.