{"id":119721,"date":"2026-05-03T12:55:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/red-jersey-for-ruegg-as-swiss-takes-stage-1-of-vuelta-femenina\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T12:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:55:37","slug":"red-jersey-for-ruegg-as-swiss-takes-stage-1-of-vuelta-femenina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/red-jersey-for-ruegg-as-swiss-takes-stage-1-of-vuelta-femenina\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Jersey for R\u00fcegg as Swiss Takes Stage 1 of Vuelta Femenina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"justify-start\">\n<nav class=\"align-left col-span-full mb-base\" data-pom-e2e-test-id=\"breadcrumbs\"\/>\n<p>Swiss rider Noemi R\u00fcegg takes her first grand tour stage win with standout uphill sprint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"border-border-light border-t py-base-tight\">\n<div class=\"flex h-4 justify-between\">\n<div class=\"flex gap-x-base-tight\">\n<div class=\"\"><button class=\"inline-flex shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full hover:cursor-pointer bg-bg-surface hover:bg-bg-light focus:bg-bg-dark text-primary border border-solid border-border-light aria-pressed:bg-brand-primary aria-pressed:text-text-surface py-very-tight px-base-tight gap-tight font-semibold font-utility-2 opacity-50\" aria-label=\"Loading audio\" aria-pressed=\"false\" id=\"article-listen-button\" disabled=\"\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"18\" height=\"18\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 18\" fill=\"none\" class=\"\"><title>Listen to this article<\/title><path d=\"M12.5265 16.2C12.2326 16.2 12.0122 16.1265 11.7184 16.053C11.2775 15.9061 10.9102 15.6122 10.6898 15.2449C10.4694 14.8775 10.3959 14.4367 10.5428 13.9959L11.5714 10.3959C11.6449 10.1755 11.7184 9.95509 11.8653 9.80815C12.0122 9.66121 12.1592 9.51427 12.3796 9.36733C12.6 9.29386 12.8204 9.2204 13.0408 9.14693C13.2612 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sm:inline\">Listen<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/p>\n<p class=\"fp-leadCaption py-tight text-left font-utility text-utility3-size leading-utility3-line-height text-secondary\">Noemi Ruegg (Team EF Education-Oatly) wins stage 1 of La Vuelta Femenina 2026 (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)<!-- --> (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<p>Updated May 3, 2026 07:57AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/noemi-ruegg\" rel=\"noopener\">Noemi R\u00fcegg<\/a> scooped the opening stage and race lead in the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/la-vuelta-femenina\" rel=\"noopener\">Vuelta Femenina<\/a> on Sunday, blitzing an uphill sprint to take the biggest win of her career thus far.<\/p>\n<p>The Swiss rider was set up perfectly by her EF Education-Oatly team and she was clearly quickest when she launched inside 200m to go, outpacing <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/franziska-koch\" rel=\"noopener\">Franzi Koch<\/a> (FDJ United-Suez) and holding off <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/lotte-kopecky\" rel=\"noopener\">Lotte Kopecky<\/a> (SD Worx-Protime).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is absolutely insane. I honestly can\u2019t really believe it,\u201d the 25 year old said. \u201cIt is just a dream to win a grand tour stage. The team believed in me so much and it was a big goal to go for the win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe girls believed in it more than I did and it is insane to finish it off like this. I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/marianne-vos\" rel=\"noopener\">Marianne Vos<\/a> (Visma-Lease a Bike) was caught behind when several riders fell on a tight bend with 8.4km to go. She faced a long chase back, but still had enough in the tank to take seventh.<\/p>\n<p>GC contenders <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/kasia-niewiadoma\" rel=\"noopener\">Kasia Niewiadoma<\/a> (Canyon SRAM-Zondacrypto) and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/pauline-ferrand-prevot\" rel=\"noopener\">Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> (Visma Lease a Bike) were prominent, taking fourth and ninth, and showing they are ready for the hardest edition of the Vuelta thus far.<\/p>\n<p>Koch took a six second bonus sprint during the stage and ended up level on time with R\u00fcegg, but the latter takes the overall race lead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it gives a lot of confidence to everyone,\u201d she said of the win and also of having the leader\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all my teammates. They really believed in me and encouraged me. We had the race under control from the beginning. We owned the race, we were always together, so this gives me a lot of confidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that is what we take in the next few days as well, that we can trust each other. It is so nice that we got such a reward today with the victory.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Late crash brings drama<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_984759\" class=\"pom-image-wrap photo-alignnone\"><img alt=\"Koch was part of a dangerous break in the finale, as was Tour de France champion Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1599\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-984759\" style=\"color:transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274284964.jpg?width=3840&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover 1x\" src=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274284964.jpg?width=3840&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover\"\/><figcaption class=\"pom-caption\"><span class=\"article__caption\">Koch was part of a dangerous break in the finale, as was Tour de France champion Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stage 1 of the race brought the riders 113.9km from Mar\u00edn to Salvaterro de Mi\u00f1o and had 1827 vertical meters of climbing.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that the stage was curiously controlled, with several attacks being fired off but nothing really sticking.<\/p>\n<p>Ma\u00ebva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) each won a category three climb ahead of the other, leaving them locked on points, with the final awarding of the mountains jersey going to whoever was higher placed at the finish. That was ultimately Squiban, while other riders were more focused on the stage win and the general classification.<\/p>\n<p>Koch won the intermediate sprint at Ponteareas (91.5km), taking a six second time bonus, and appeared to be on the way to possible race leadership when she got clear with teammates Juliette Berthet (FDJ) and Eva Van Agt (FDJ) plus Pauline Ferrand Pr\u00e9vot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Alessia Vigilia (Uno-X) inside the final 8.4km.<\/p>\n<p>The split was created after a crash brought down a handful of riders on a tight decent, with this incident splitting the bunch into several parts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t plan anything originally, but then we saw that there were splits and we were in the front,\u201d Koch later explained. \u201cSo then you have to ride.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However the other teams rode hard to bring them back, with the fragmented peloton also coming back together.<\/p>\n<p>Various teams tried to take control, with R\u00fcegg\u2019s EF Education-Oatly positioning her very well heading to the uphill drag to the line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew this finish was perfect for me. If I could draw my dream stage it would end exactly like this,\u201d sbe said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew I could trust on a long sprint so from the last corner I wanted to just go full gas and all in. The team put me in a great position and then I just went all out from the last corner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a gap pretty immediately and I was like, \u2018okay, just keep going.\u2019 I looked back and I saw I could make it to the finish. It was a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width:100%;border:none;display:block\" title=\"Script Content\" async=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"fp-remove fp-remove\" type=\"iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/www.procyclingstats.com\/clients\/velo\/results.php?id=324223&amp;key=b09f5sd65sdf23jas33gs8a6e\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vuelta-a-espana\/vuelta-femenina-2026-stage-1-results-ruegg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swiss rider Noemi R\u00fcegg takes her first grand tour stage win with standout uphill sprint. Listen to this articleListen Noemi Ruegg (Team EF Education-Oatly) wins stage 1 of La Vuelta Femenina 2026 (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images) (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski) Updated May 3, 2026 07:57AM Noemi R\u00fcegg scooped the opening stage and race lead in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}