Anna van der Breggen won stage 6 of La Vuelta Femenina 2026 with a measured, powerful ride on the savage slopes of Les Praeres, taking control on the final climb and finishing 8 seconds clear of Paula Blasi after the first real GC showdown of the race. Marion Bunel rode strongly to take third, with Juliette Berthet and Monica Trinca Colonel following behind as the standings were blown apart on the steep Asturian wall.
After several nervous, punchy days to open the race, this was the first stage built squarely for the climbers. At 106.6km it was the shortest day of the week, but it packed in the race’s first summit finish and one of the most brutal climbs on the route. That combination meant the early kilometres were always likely to be relatively calm compared with the violence to come later on.
An early break gets room before the mountains arrive
The first significant move came soon after the start in Gijón, with Marine Allione and Elisa Valtulini getting clear before Gaia Masetti and Sterre Vervloet joined them to make it four at the front. Behind them, Aniek van Alphen and then Léa Rondel tried to bridge across, but neither chase ever really looked likely to succeed.
The peloton was content to let the quartet go. None of the four posed any threat on general classification, and with the day expected to be decided on Les Praeres, the bunch had little reason to spend energy too early. Their advantage grew past four minutes at one point as the race rolled through Asturias under grey skies and cool temperatures.
Allione, already active through the week, remained the best placed of the escapees on GC, but she was still more than 10 minutes down at the start of the day. This was a move for stage visibility and classification points rather than any serious attempt to disturb the overall race.
The race begins to tighten before La Curciada
For much of the stage, the pace behind was controlled rather than aggressive. SD Worx-Protime spent long spells at the front despite knowing that red jersey holder Lotte Kopecky was unlikely to survive the final climb with the best pure climbers. Their main focus was Anna van der Breggen, who began the day as their clear card for the first summit finish.
The lead only started to shrink properly once the road turned more lumpy in the final 40km. The intermediate climb and sprint at La Curciada gave the stage a clear hinge point. The break still had enough of an advantage to contest the bonuses themselves, with Masetti taking the sprint, but behind them the race was finally beginning to move.
A particularly interesting moment came when Franziska Koch attacked from the peloton alongside team-mate Eva van Agt and Mischa Bredewold. Koch, sitting second overall, knew she needed to take time wherever she could before the final climb. That trio opened a small gap and swept up some useful bonus seconds behind the break, but it was never a move that looked likely to survive all the way to the bottom of Les Praeres.
Photo Credit: Toni BaixauliProblems and crashes unsettle the favourites
The stage did not build cleanly towards the final climb. Instead, it became increasingly fragmented. There were crashes for UAE Team ADQ riders through the day, with Mavi García going down early, Paula Blasi later hitting the deck, and then Maëva Squiban abandoning after another fall. Sarah Van Dam also crashed in the peloton late on, ending her hopes of a strong GC ride.
More significantly for the red jersey battle, Kopecky found herself off the back after some sort of problem in the final 40km. For a while she was chasing largely alone as SD Worx-Protime committed fully to Van der Breggen. That told its own story. The team had already switched from defending Kopecky’s red jersey to backing Van der Breggen for the stage and the GC fight that would follow.
The weather then worsened just as the race approached the decisive phase. Rain began to fall harder, the roads became slick, and the final steep unclassified rise before Les Praeres immediately started spitting riders out of the back. Koch was one of the first major casualties there, distanced before the final climb had even begun. Kopecky was dropped too, confirming that the race lead was going elsewhere.
The break is caught and the favourites prepare for Les Praeres
Once the race reached the final 10km, the break was on borrowed time. Lidl-Trek were particularly active, driving the peloton on in support of Ricarda Bauernfeind, while EF Education-Oatly gathered around Cédrine Kerbaol and Kristen Faulkner came to the front to lift the pace for the Frenchwoman’s chances.
The last remnants of the escape were swept up with around 6km to go. By then the bunch was down to around 25 riders and shrinking. The run-in to the base of Les Praeres was already selective enough, but everyone knew the real damage was still to come.
Les Praeres itself was always going to decide the day. At 3.7km and roughly 13 per cent on average, with far steeper ramps on the opening pitches, it was less a conventional summit finish and more a climbing test of rhythm, torque and restraint. Attack too early, and the climb would punish you. Wait too long, and the strongest rider might already be gone.
Kerbaol goes first, Van der Breggen takes over
Cédrine Kerbaol was the first of the main contenders to move, attacking as soon as the road bit at the bottom of the climb. For a moment she had a small gap and looked sharp, but the others did not panic. Van der Breggen, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Paula Blasi stayed seated, measured the effort and let Kerbaol spend her energy early.
That choice proved decisive. Van der Breggen gradually reeled Kerbaol back in, with Niewiadoma and Blasi on her wheel and Bunel just behind. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was already in difficulty, and once the steepest section arrived Van der Breggen increased the pace again.
That acceleration broke the race open. Niewiadoma was dropped and began to lose time rapidly. Bunel hung on impressively just behind, while Blasi proved the biggest surprise of the climb, sticking closest to Van der Breggen when the pace lifted again. It quickly became a duel between experience and emergence: one of the most decorated riders of her generation against one of the breakout names of the spring.
Van der Breggen grinds clear for the stage win
The key move came with around 2km to go, when Van der Breggen found another acceleration on the steepest part of the climb and finally opened a gap on Blasi. It was not explosive in the way some uphill attacks look. Instead, it was a pure seated grind, a rider finding a pace that nobody else could quite hold.
Blasi refused to collapse and at times seemed to steady the gap, especially on one of the flatter sections near the top. But every time the road kicked back up, Van der Breggen stretched the advantage again. Her cadence stayed consistent, her upper body stayed calm, and the climb increasingly looked like it belonged to her.
Behind them, Bunel rode a mature stage to take third, while Berthet moved past the fading Niewiadoma and Trinca Colonel came through strongly for fifth. Ferrand-Prévot, by contrast, was a long way back by the finish, one of the biggest losers on the day.
Van der Breggen crossed the line alone, 8 seconds ahead of Blasi, sealing a remarkable win on one of the hardest uphill finishes of the race. Bunel followed for third, ahead of Berthet and Trinca Colonel, while Niewiadoma eventually came home over a minute down after fading badly in the second half of the climb.
A mountain stage that finally broke the race open
For five stages, La Vuelta Femenina had been shaped by positioning, reduced sprints, technical finales and small time gaps. Les Praeres changed that. This was the first day where the climbers could no longer hide, and Van der Breggen handled it best.
She judged the climb perfectly, did not follow the first move, and then imposed her own rhythm at exactly the right moment. Blasi’s second place was one of the rides of the day, while Bunel’s third confirmed her as a major presence in this race. But the headline belonged to Van der Breggen, who arrived at the foot of Les Praeres with questions still hanging over her form after the previous day’s crash and left it with the stage win and the strongest statement of the GC fight so far.
La Vuelta Femenina 2026 Stage 6 result
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Main photo credit: Getty
