Itzulia Women: Mischa Bredewold sprints to opening stage victory from a select group of five

Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 1 of the Itzulia Women, triumphing from a sprint among a group of five after a hard stage around Zarautz.Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Premier Tech) finished second, and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) rounded out the podium.“Antonia put a super hard pace on the [Etumeta] climb. I was most nervous for that climb today, but I really surprised myself. Climbers that normally beat me easily started going left to right, and I thought, ‘okay, I still feel really good’. That gave me confidence. The cooperation in the group was not so good, but I think the cooperation behind us was even worse. I just had to stay calm and stay in control,” said Bredewold after the stage.“Riejanne did a smart move [in the sprint] by going really early. I expected that she would do it, but she went even earlier than I thought. But luckily, I could make it on the line,” Bredewold described the sprint.Due to time bonifications from her fifth Itzulia stage victory in three years and an intermediate sprint, Bredewold leads the general classification by seven seconds on Kastelijn and eight seconds on Markus. Dickson follows at 11 seconds, with Niedermaier at 15 seconds.“Of course we’re going to try [to win the GC], but I still want to look at it day by day. We’re only here with five riders, so we need to be smart, we cannot control all the day. We will fight for it, but we’ll see day by day,” said Bredewold, cautious about her GC chances.ResultsResults powered by FirstCycling