La Vuelta Femenina 2026 Stage 5 recap - Mischa Bredewold wins sprint finish as red jersey Lotte Kopecky takes second, Anna van der Breggen crashes

Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) powered to victory to claim her first La Vuelta Femenina win as her team-mate Lotte Kopecky finished second to retain the red jersey.

It was a stage played to perfection by SD Worx-Protime as the team claimed their second victory of the race in the final sprint stage before the race headed to the mountains.

The breakaway of the day formed inside 11km of the start, with a quintet of riders of Aniek van Alphen (Fenix-Premier Tech), Sara Martin (Movistar), Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi), Marina Garau (Vini Fantini-Be Pink) and Alice Coutinho (Mayenne Monbana My Pie) forming.

Having grown their advantage to a steady 2’30”, it was Garau who first lost touch with the breakaway before being absorbed by the chasing peloton as the gap quickly dwindled to under a minute.

Coutinho picked up maximum points in the Queen of the Mountains competition over the two category three climbs (Collada de Olleros de Alba and Alto de la Garandilla) to take the mountains jersey from her team-mate Marine Allione, before also being dropped by the breakaway with 34km to go.

Having finished third and fourth in Stage 2 and Stage 4 respectively, Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) had hoped to finally claim victory, but the Italian was dealt a blow with 25km to go when she crashed alongside Marthe Goossens (AG Insurance-Soudal)

With the help of her team-mate Josie Talbot, Paternoster returned to the bunch with 14.8km to go and was able to contest the sprint finish.

Before that, it was the red jersey and green jersey who went head-to-head for the remaining intermediate sprint points at Castrillo de Cepeda, with Kopecky managing to pip FDJ United-SUEZ rider Franziska Koch on the line as she closed the gap on the points jersey to just seven points.

The catch was made with 8.6km to go, with Liv-AlUla-Jayco, SD Worx-Protime and Visma-Lease a Bike fighting for position but the introduction of rain in the closing kilometres saw the peloton reduced by a heavy crash in the middle of the peloton, with overall general classification contender Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) also brought down.

As the bunch reached the final incline of 7% gradient up to the finish line, Bredewold would take up the leadout with Kopecky following close behind, before Bredewold would pip her team-mate on the line to claim her first La Vuelta Femenina victory.

Despite her crash and being in significant pain having suffered a wrist injury, Pasternoster claimed third.

Kopecky retained the red leader's jersey heading into Stage 6 and also moved into the points jersey, having picked up bonus points on the line.

After the race, Bredewold confirmed that it was the ”dream scenario” for SD Worx-Protime as her team played it to perfection.

”So we made a dream ideal plan to do it like this and I had the freedom to sprint with Lotte on my wheel,” she said.

”She would come over if she had to, but like I said before, it was a dream scenario. If I had to, I would do the leadout, but it was not necessary. I’m super happy to get my first victory.”

"It was a really nice day. Our team took control from the beginning to keep the break inside and once we approached the final, it got more hectic and then the last three or four kilometres, it started raining, and we had to be careful, but it was a really nice finish.

"We knew this finish suited us very well, so we would be stupid not to do [sprint].

"I just had to protect the wheel of Mischa and I knew she was going to sprint, so I was just hoping from behind that nobody would come so she could take the victory.

It’s really nice to ride in the red jersey, but I think after tomorrow, it will not be mine anymore."

It looked like a simple leadout for the red jersey once again, but SD Worx-Protime had other plans as they played it to perfection to claim a second victory in the 2026 edition of the La Vuelta Femenina.

"We had a luxury position with the red jersey and I’m so grateful to the team that I had freedom to share my ambitions of sprinting.

"Of course, we’re here together, I’m here with Lotte for the sprint and you need to personalise a bit with the stages and especially today with the red jersey, you don’t want to throw that away as that would be really stupid.

"So we made a dream ideal plan to do it like this and I had the freedom to sprint with Lotte on my wheel and she would come over if she had to. But like I said before, it was a dream scenario, so if I had to, I would do the leadout, but it was not necessary. I’m super happy to get my first victory.

"It was scary, it was a really hectic finale. I’m happy that Anna [van der Breggen] is okay as I saw she was not too bad and I hope the other girls are okay. It made it really hectic and nobody has a real leadout anymore.

"We are really ready with Anna, she is in super condition. It doesn’t look like this crash will affect her, I hope, and we’re very ready to fight for it."

Lotte Kopecky retains the red jersey ahead of the final two stages of this year's La Vuelta Femenina.

1. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) 15:04:47

2. Franziska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ) +12"

3. Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) +18"

4. Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) +22"

5. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) +26"

6. Sarah van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) +28"

7. Evita Muzic (FDJ United-SUEZ) +28"

8. Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek) +30"

9. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) +32"

10. Liane Lippert (Movistar) +32"

1. Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) 2:54:07

2. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) "

3. Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) "

4. Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) "

5. Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal) "

6. Megan Jastrab (UAE Team ADQ) "

7. Franziska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ) "

8. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) "

9. Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek)

10. Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health)

Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) appears to lead out the sprint as the sprinters endure that slight rise up to the finish line.

As her teammate looks to go clear, quite bizarrely Bredewold keeps within distance and pips her teammate.

A replay indicates it might have been a planned manoevre from SD Worx-Protime, with Kopecky looking around to ensure Bredewold picked up her win.

We head under the flamme rogue but unfortunately, we also have a massive crash in the middle of the peloton as a Liv AlUla Jayco rider goes down.

One of the riders to go down in Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime)

We hear that there is rain on the course at the finish line, which could add a little something to the closing stages.

The peloton is spread across the road as we head towards the flamme rogue.

Interestingly, Movistar have just moved in front of SD-Worx Protime as we go through a narrowly windy road.

This finish could suit Liane Lippert who attempted an early sprint yesterday.

We're all back together as the breakaway trio is finally caught with 8.6km to go.

Liv AlUla Jayco, SD Worx-Protime and Visma-Lease a Bike are the teams controlling things, with FDJ United Suez also moving towards the front of the race.

As the breakaway's advantage continues to drop little by little, it seems like the perfect occasion to get this out of the way before the catch is made.

Typical for La Vuelta Femenina stages, there is once again a twist to a perfect flat sprint finish.

The riders will face a final roundabout with 350m to go, which is quickly followed by a very punchy uphill sprint with the final 200m seeing an incline of around 7% gradient.

A big sigh of relief by the Italian as the Liv AlUla Jayco duo makes contact with the back of the peloton, who has brought the gap to the breakaway down to 28".

Her team immediately brings her to the front to protect her and hopefully she'll have enough energy to duel it out in the bunch sprint.

The breakaway trio pick up the first three sets of points for the intermediate sprint, and it's between Lotte Kopecky, Franziska Koch and Cedrine Kerbaol to pick up the remaining points.

It'll be a lovely boost for the red jersey as Lotte Kopecky holds off Koch to pick up 12 points, whilst the German champion picks up the remaining 10 points.

Koch leads the competition by seven points.

1. Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) 25pts

2. Aniek van Alphen (Fenix-Premier Tech) 20pts

3. Sara Martin (Movistar) 15pts

4. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) 12pts

5. Franziska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ) 10pts

It looks like it was Letizia Pasternoster who was the Liv AlUla Jayco rider to go down in that crash and needed a bike change.

A massive blow after coming so close in the previous stages and she also faces a massive effort to get back within chance of a stage victory.

She has her teammate Josie Talbot with her as we await to find the gap.

In completely unrelated news, we do unfortunately have our first crash of the day as a handful of riders go around a bent a tad wide and go down.

Two Liv AlUla Jayco riders appear to get up pretty quickly, albeit delayed by a bike change, whilst a EF Education-Oatly rider also appears to get moving quickly.

It's Marthe Gossens (AG Insurance-Soudal), who appears to have felt the brunt of that crash, with some wear and tear visible on her jersey. She takes a while to get up and faces a massive chase on her hands to help her teammate Shari Bossuyt, who is after her second stage win of the race.

The gap is brought back down to 44" but that's not the development I'm on about as it appears a few raindrops have appeared on the camera.

Hopefully that's the most we see of that though.

It appears the peloton have allowed the breakaway's advantage to grow back to over 1'00", with a fairly organised train of teams spread across the road.

FDJ United-SUEZ attempt to try and pick up the tempo, but it appears the peloton are happy to hold the breakaway at a minute.

As Dani Rowe explains over commentary, it means it's a "controllable gap" for the peloton and easy enough to reel back in. Whilst, had they brought the breakaway back, they could face a never-ending list of relentless attacks with different riders attempting to ride free in the closing 30 kilometers.

As the breakaway begin a pretty drawn out descent until the finish line, it looks like Alice Coutinho has been dropped by her breakaway contingent after picking up the important QOM points.

The breakaway of Aniek van Alphen (Fenix-Premier Tech), Sara Martin (Movistar), Idioa Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) have managed to grow their advantage to 49" in the process.

The Fenix-Premier Tech rider is momentarily distanced by the breakaway trio but she's able to get back on the wheel as the quartet has a shaky 32" cushion.

Elsewhere, there's been changes at the front of the peloton with Visma-Lease a Bike working for Sarah van Dam, who has been super close to a major victory in her career. Whilst we also see Liv AlUla Jayco, EF Education-Oatly and UAE Team ADQ also near the front.