La Vuelta Femenina 2026 Stage 2 recap - Shari Bossuyt takes first WorldTour win in sprint as Lotte Kopecky loses foot from pedal

Shari Bossuyt was the surprise Stage 2 winner at La Vuelta Femenina and there were huge red jersey ramifications on the way to San Cibrao das Vinas.

From Lotte Kopecky's sprint issues to race leader Noemi Ruegg crashing out, it was certainly an eventful stage. Let's have a look at how it went down.

Riders had 109.8km to go today, 2,134m of elevation, so it was another decent day in the legs. The main breakaway group was never given more than a minute, and they were caught just after the intermediate sprint.

With 25km left to go, the attacks were relentless. At 13km to go, Noemi Ruegg came down with the white jersey wearer, Eleonora Ciobocco of Picnic PostNL. Ruegg abandoned but Ciobocco made it over the finish line.

Coming into the finish, the peloton was thinned significantly, with Anna van der Breggen leading out Kopecky into the final sprint. A little bit of a nudge between Kopecky and Bossuyt and Kopecky's foot came out of her pedal, with her losing all her momentum. Bossuyt took advantage of this and won the sprint, with Franzi Koch taking second place.

Today's result sees Koch take the red jersey into Stage 3.

We'll be back tomorrow for Stage 3, with live images starting at 14:30 BST.

🔴 Franziska Koch (FDJ-Suez)

⚪ Lore de Schepper (AG Insurance-Soudal)

🟢 Franziska Koch (FDJ-Suez)

🔴⚪ Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ)

🥇 Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal)
🥈Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez)
🥉 Évita Muzic (FDJ-Suez)
4. Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco)
5. Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike)
6. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime)
7. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal)
8. Lianne Lippert (Movistar)
9. Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi)
10. Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek)

She didn't want to say much about the finale, but she is visibly disappointed in the result.

"It was quite a hard start with the uphill start, but I was not expecting to win today. I was in the back on the climb but on the downhill I made up a lot of places and I just came with a lot of speed, and I think nobody was expecting that."

Not only a big win for her team, AG Insurance-Soudal, but Bossuyt's first win at WorldTour level.

Goodness me, what a hectic finish that was. Kopecky was looking good, but she looked to have a problem with her pedal and her foot came out just as she bumped another rider. Bossuyt took advantage and drove forward to take the win, with Franzi Koch coming 2nd.

Big sweeping left hander here, Franzi Koch moves up....

The powerful young UAE rider tries to go, and takes a few big names with her. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot misses out but the move comes back together. Will anyone go over the top?

Thankfully she didn't need the toilet, she just wanted a snack...

The road is still going uphill, and riders are tailing off at the back.

The FDJ-Suez rider's move doesn't create any gaps as Anna van der Breggen of SD Worx-Protime sets the pace at the front.

The gap is slowly coming down but it's not back together just yet, as we hit the final climb of the day.

We've still got some big names in there, Anna van der Breggen, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot all looking comfortable in the reduced bunch.

The Uno-X rider has reached the bottom of the descent and there's a super tight right-hander that could prove tricky for the bunch. Oh, and it's wet.

The race leader won't be continuing the stage after crashing. We hope she has a swift recovery.