Lara Gillespie may have come into this Vuelta on the back of a big training week last week, but the Irish rider appears to absorbing the fatigue and getting stronger through the week; her 4th place finish today a big step in her career.
After the finish in Baltanás - where she put in a power bazooka to come from a long way back - she told stickybottle she has felt great in the last couple of days, despite effectively riding this race in the middle of a big training block, rather than peaking for it.
The finish today was one for the road racers in the pack; an fast, attritional run-in, with riders being spat out the back, attacks off the front, some late kickers and a drag to the finish. It was perfect for Gillespie and she made the most of it. With a bit more lead-out support, the power that took her from 20th to 4th in the final 250 metres may have brought a much better result.
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"There was lead-out riders swinging off here, there and everywhere," she said. "Me on my own... it was kinda hard. I was trying to follow (Marianne) Vos, but you just get pushed off the wheel when you have no teammates around you. I did my best, I can't really do much more. But that type of finish is my favorite, that little kicker."
She said the stage - some 126.7km from Becerril de Campos to Baltanás - was "pretty full gas", with repeated attacks and constant movement in the bunch.
"There was crashes, there was rain. Someone came down right in front of me so I had the bunny hop over her. Then my bike went into crash mode. So I had to change bikes and chase back in, so it wasn't that simple.
"But I felt really good the last few days, and I felt really good on the climbs as well today. I just paced it and made it to the front where I wanted to be for the last downhill. And then I felt really good in the sprint. But it was just annoying I was too far back, I got squeezed in the last kilometre."
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She agreed with the suggestion 4th place in a Grand Tour stage - especially close to the end of a week of hard racing - was a big step forward in her career, even if she has already been to the podium in World Tour races this year.
"I had a break after Roubaix and then I had a big training week last week, so I wasn't peaking for this race in any way," she said. And, unfortunately, we've been just losing riders day by day on the team. So I'm really happy with that result today.
"But I definitely want more in the future. I'm dealing with the fatigue (of a Grand Tour), learning how to keep going every single day; late night early mornings it's intense."
Gillespie said on the first road stage of La Vuelta, on Monday, though it came down to a bunch sprint - won by Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) - she got caught being four crashes in the last 15km, before placing 94th.
"So I was absolutely in no contention there," she said, adding on the following day's stage 3, where she was 17th, she got "stuck in a rut" in terms of positioning, with no option to improve that position in time to contend properly.
"But it's just about learning from those," she said. "And then on the climbing days I just did my best for our climber and just rode up the rest of the climb.
"But it's good for learning, good for goals later in the season. I think I'll be having good form after this to be honest," she laughed. "I'm doing a lot of my best 20-minute powers, good efforts considering I had a break after the classics."
After tomorrow's big finale of La Vuelta, to the top of Alto de Cotobello, Gillespie said she had an eye on the stage races to come later in the season, including the Tour of Britain at the start of June.
