The field at La Vuelta Femenina (2.WWT) is now 30 riders smaller than when it set out from Torrevieja on Monday, but Ireland's Fiona Mangan (Soltec Team) is among the survivors and is now eyeing a Grand Tour finish.
Just Sunday's final stage stands between her and a big notch on her cycling CV; the brutish 93.7km road from Pola de Sieroto to Lagos de Covadonga. While that final day of action will be short, the finish is on the top of a 13.3km HC climb, averaging 6.8 per cent gradient.
And with Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) having today taken the race leader's red jersey from yesterday's stage winner, Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx), the final stage looks set to be an epic showdown.
Mangan told stickybottle on the eve of the race she would be a very happy woman to make it to the base of tomorrow's last climb, with just that mountain between herself a major career achievement. And now that scenario looks set to play out tomorrow.
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Today's stage 6 - some 106.1km from Castro Urdiales to Laredo - saw the field split in the wind, with race leader Vollering caught out, though in controversial circumstances. Vollering and some of her team mates stopped for a call of nature with about 35km of the stage completed.
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Movistar then went to the front at that phase of the stage and drove the pace, saying afterwards they had always planned to put the field in the gutter at that point. The result was the main field being split, just as the race leader and her team mates were stopping and then coming back to the group.
That scenario forced Vollering into a chase for the remainder of the stage, which featured two cat 2 climbs. On the first of those - Alto de Fuente de las Varas - Van Vleuten squeezed on the pedals, with only four riders able to go with her. They were: Juliette Labous (Team DSM), Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ), Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) and Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ).
On the second climb - Puerto de Campo El Hayal - Van Vleuten dropped all of her breakaway companions except Realini. The Trek-Segafredo rider then leaned on the world champion for the final 15km before out-sprinting her to win the stage, with Van Vleuten 2nd on the same time.
Some 1:04 elapsed before the arrival of the 17-rider chasing group, led in by Loes Adegeest (FDJ-SUEZ) from Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) and Vollering. The result put Van Vleuten into the race lead with a 1:11 advantage over Vollering before tomorrow's final stage.
Mangan finished in 80th place today, 17:32 down on the winner and surviving to fight through the final stage tomorrow.
