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  "description": "The Spanish block of WWT races is great, but do three-day events really belong in the WorldTour?",
  "path": "/wheel-talk-newsletter-no-offense-itzulia-but-lets-trim-the-calendar/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-19T18:02:04.000Z",
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  "textContent": "The Itzulia Women's race was fantastic. Three days of all-out racing, and the overall battle came down to the wire. The strongest rider at the race probably won (Mischa Bredewold is extremely underhyped, if you ask me), but the other real winner was Dominika Włodarczyk, who took her first WorldTour victory on stage 2 and then doubled up the following day.\n\nIf I had a dollar for every WorldTour stage race where UAE Team ADQ won two stages back-to-back with only half a team, I would have two dollars, which isn't a lot, but it's crazy it has happened twice.\n\nRegardless of how good the race was, I must ask, does this race deserve to be WorldTour? It's only May, and teams are stretched thin. UAE Team ADQ only started with four to begin with. Visma-Lease a Bike used this race as their one skip of the season... it does not bode well for the end of the summer.\n\n* * *\n\n## First things first: Some quick takeaways from Itzulia...\n\n**Mischa Bredewold is the moment**\n\nTwo years in a row, Bredewold won the first two stages of the Itzulia, in 2024 and 2025. On both occasions, Demi Vollering swept in to win the final stage and with it the overall classification. Both times, Bredewold finished second overall. In 2024, it was by 34 seconds, and in 2025, 48 seconds.\n\nThis year, Bredewold again won the opening stage, but this time she wasn't going to allow anyone to pull that leader's jersey off her back. She fought for every single bonus sprint and clawed her way into the bonus seconds every stage. Even in the second stage, when Shirin van Anrooij and Włodarczyk slipped up the road, Bredewold finished second and grabbed the six seconds that came with it (on top of the five she had won earlier in the stage).\n\nBredewold targeted this race early and made it clear that she would want full team support in her bid for the overall.\n\n\"Finally,\" she said after receiving her neon leader's jersey at the end of three days of racing. \"It's a dream. I feel like I could cry all the time. I am also really tired.\"\n\n\"This was such a big goal, and to actually do it is pretty crazy. Having the support of the team all weekend was an incredible feeling. They gave me so much confidence today that I really started to believe in myself that I could do it.\"\n\n\"I really had to trust my own pace and my own feeling on that final climb. To come back in the final 500 metres, I was seeing black dots, but I just had one goal: the final wheel of that group, it didn't matter who it was.\"\n\nBredewold proved at the Vuelta that she had good form, but by winning the Itzulia, she proved what she is capable of with the support of the team. In almost every race, she is riding for others, but at this point in her**** career, she has shown that she can be a champion.\n\nShe is still signed to SD Worx-Protime for next season, and it's hard to see her ever leaving the team. She strikes me as a forever member of the Dutch squad, because they brought her up from the lower level and cultivated her talent. That being said, with both Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky on the squad, it will be rare for her to have her own opportunities to lead. While both of them are wearing the same jersey, her leadership will fall only on races like Itzulia. Then again, rumours of a potential early departure for Wiebes could open the door for Bredewold to take on a bigger role at SD Worx-Protime, which would be fantastic to see.\n\nI will forgive Bredewolf for telling me she \"doesn't listen to Taylor Swift anymore\" now that she is more grown up... anyone can become a fan if they're given the right song.\n\n**FDJ United-Suez _does_ have a leadership problem**\n\nIn that final stage, the stage that really could have shaken up the overall classification, FDJ United-Suez was the strongest team. They put enough pressure on the race to drop the leader and distance her by over 30 seconds, but then they fumbled the gap, and Bredewold came back to win the overall. In the meantime, FDJ United-Suez also missed out on the stage win.\n\nClearly, they were going for the stage, as they were throwing attacks with Juliette Berthet, Évita Muzic and Lauren Dickson. But with Dickson in fourth overall, only 20 seconds off the win, it wasn't completely out of the question that they could have taken the entire race on Sunday.\n\nThat tactic they employed could have worked, maybe, but none of them could get a gap. Once they realised the terrain wasn't working in their favour and the other riders in their group were willing to shut down their attempts, they should have pivoted, put Berthet and Muzic on the front, and ridden as hard as they possibly could. Maybe the race would have ended the same, but it would have been close for Bredewold in the end.\n\nIf the race hadn't been a WorldTour event, perhaps they would have trusted Dickson enough to ride for her. She does have very limited experience, after all, and they probably didn't expect her to be their top rider after the first stage.\n\nThe reason I call this a leadership problem is that Berthet and Muzic need to be leaders whenever the team doesn't have Demi Vollering lining up. Both riders could lead other teams, so FDJ United-Suez needs to put them in a position to win whenever they can. Berthet especially showed fantastic form at La Vuelta to finish fifth overall, albeit on very different climbs. With the Vuelta a Burgos around the corner and the GC likely to be decided on Lagunas de Neila, where Berthet won in 2022, the French team could have gone with Dickson at Itzulia.\n\n**Antonia Niedermaier just needs longer climbs**\n\nProbably the strongest climber in the whole race was Antonia Niedermaier of Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto. Every time a climb loomed, Niedermaier split the race. The move that distanced Bredewold on the final stage? Also largely down to Niedermaier. All she needed was a few longer climbs and this race could have been hers.\n\nAs Matt de Neef said on the podcast this week, her fifth-place overall finish does not do her form justice at all. Watch out, Lagunas de Neila.\n\n**The race that could have been...**\n\nBecause of its place in the calendar and the fact that it's only three stages, the best of the women's peloton wasn't at the Itzulia. Don't get me wrong, we got some really great riders, and they put on a show, but Visma-Lease a Bike opted not to race. Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto, Fenix-Premier Tech, SD Worx-Protime, St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 and Vini Fantini-BePink all only had five riders. UAE Team ADQ showed up with only four to start, as did Hitec Products-Fluid Control, who in theory shouldn't even be in the race as they are a Continental team* (that UCI rule lasted exactly two WorldTour events). They finished with only two riders.\n\nWith a reduced field to start with, the race was already on the back foot. Normally, it's not until the end of the season that we see teams this thin, and it's worrying that already in May, a few teams are feeling the calendar this negatively, but more on that in a minute...\n\n*Vini Fantini-BePink is also at the Continental level.\n\n* * *\n\n## Racing continues...\n\nAt the Vuelta a Burgos! From May 21 to 24.\n\nThe Spanish block of WorldTour stage races concludes this weekend with the four-day Vuelta a Burgos. Two sprint stages, one punchy finish, and Lagunas de Neila.\n\n### Stage 1 (May 21): Burgos to Burgos (127 km)\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "Wheel Talk Newsletter: No offense, Itzulia ... but let's trim the calendar",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-19T22:55:34.691Z"
}