The opening day of racing at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta saw the peloton head to the hills and mountains, with a tough 118 kilometre long stage from Estación Invernal Cabeza de Manzaneda to A Rua, including the 15 kilometre ascent of Alto Da Portela in the middle of the day.
Starting on a downhill, it was an incredibly fast start to the stage with multiple attacks but no group was able initially to get away, before a strong five rider group went clear ahead of the climb. With no representative in the move for the team, Coryn Rivera launched from the peloton and bridged across to the leaders, pacing the climb brilliantly. Rivera’s break worked well together and extended their gap over the peloton to two minutes with 30 kilometres to go, after two riders dropped from the move.
Heading into the last ten kilometres the quartet still held onto the same gap, as they charged down the descent before the flat final run to the line. It was a tactical finish, with several attacks as the riders in the group tried to break free, not wanting to come to a sprint with Rivera. At just over one kilometre to go Reusser made a well timed attack and with the rest of the group hesitating, she went on to take the win, while in the chasing group behind Rivera showed her good turn of speed by winning the sprint for second place.