{"id":683101,"date":"2026-05-20T14:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683101\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:13:15","slug":"durango-durango-paula-blasi-impresses-with-solo-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683101\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango-Durango: Paula Blasi impresses with solo victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"elk-b9cd26c5-62e2-421d-8e73-ba1ef60e8fdc\">Rider of the moment Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) stormed to another win at Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria with a powerful climbing effort, securing her first win since taking the GC at La Vuelta Femenina 10 days ago.<\/p>\n<p>Blasi rode away from a leading group near the top of the steep Alto de Goiuria, 8.5km from the finish, to solo to the win in Durango and add her second one-day win of the year after Amstel Gold Race.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-b9cd26c5-62e2-421d-8e73-ba1ef60e8fdc-2\">Behind her, the two remaining members of the late leading group battled in a two-up sprint for the podium, with \u00c9vita Muzic (FDJ United-Suez) taking second ahead of Alice Towers (EF Education-Oatly).<\/p>\n<p>Latest Videos From<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/gmvwmhupgi1715762145.svg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/gmvwmhupgi1715762145.svg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/gmvwmhupgi1715762145.svg\" class=\"rounded-[var(--image--border-radius,0)] block h-[18px] w-auto shrink-0 brightness-0 invert\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/gmvwmhupgi1715762145.svg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/gmvwmhupgi1715762145.svg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/flexiimages\/gmvwmhupgi1715762145.svg\" class=\"rounded-[var(--image--border-radius,0)] max-h-12 w-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>            You may like<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Once the day&#8217;s early break was caught, it was a typically attacking day over the final three climbs in the Basque Country, with various moves going and coming back and whittling down the bunch, until a select group got away early on the final climb, setting up Blasi&#8217;s winning move.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be honest, I didn\u2019t feel as good as I expected at the start of the race, but my sensations improved as the kilometres went by,&#8221; Blasi said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&#8220;Today I was surrounded by the girls from the Development Team, the team I was part of until a few months ago, and they did an incredible job to give me the opportunity to fight for the win in the final.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On the second climb I wasn\u2019t feeling great, so I tried to stay under control without pushing too much. Then on the final climb, things changed a bit also because of Magdeleine Vallieres\u2019 crash, and I decided to attack. In the end, I managed to open a gap and win a race that means a lot to me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-how-it-unfolded\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/>How it unfolded<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:66.70%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bqr8Gmahggd8gdMcT6kZLQ.jpg\" alt=\"The peloton rides on a curve with mountains behind\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bqr8Gmahggd8gdMcT6kZLQ.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bqr8Gmahggd8gdMcT6kZLQ.jpg\" class=\"rounded-[var(--image--border-radius,0)] inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-08aecbae-088a-48b7-b9c5-adc3f9592f95\">The 25th edition of Durango Emakumeen Saria rolled out of Durango for its traditional hilly course, 113km with four laps of the Alto de Miota, then finishing with the back-to-back climbs of Areitio and two times up different sides of the Alto de Goiuria before a flat finish in Durango.<\/p>\n<p>2025 winner Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) wasn&#8217;t on the start list, nor were any former winners, so it was to be a new victor in one of the calendar&#8217;s longest-running one-day races.<\/p>\n<p>Early in the day, a three-rider break went away, composed of Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini-BePink) and the Cantabria Deporte-Rio Miera duo of Eva Anguela and Leyre Almena. They led for all of the first half of the race, and still had a lead of four minutes with 50km to go, but the climbing to come would put an end to that.<\/p>\n<p>            What to read next<\/p>\n<p>UAE Team ADQ, FDJ and EF were the teams doing the work on the final circuit loop and into the final climbs, quickly eating into the leaders&#8217; advantage. On an uncategorised rise before the Areitio, an injection of pace from Lidl-Trek saw an elite group split off the front of the peloton, but that split was undone soon after.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:66.70%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/hoUvoJBQzdFyasrGxHgXLQ.jpg\" alt=\"Fariba Hashimi of Afghanistan and Team Vini Fantini - BePink, Leyre Almena and Eva Anguela and Team Cantabria Deporte - Rio Miera during the 25th Durango - Durango Emakumeen Saria 2026\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/hoUvoJBQzdFyasrGxHgXLQ.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/hoUvoJBQzdFyasrGxHgXLQ.jpg\" class=\"rounded-[var(--image--border-radius,0)] inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-6257cf1b-b78f-435f-bc25-b7744bd8a421\">The start of the climbing kicked off various attacks and accelerations, which meant the break was caught with 30km to go. A high pace of the first Alto de Goiuria ascent whittled down the peloton, and then it was on the second time up that a small group broke off the front of the bunch: Blasi, Muzic, Towers, Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly) and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek).<\/p>\n<p>On a brief downhill, world champion Vallieres slid out on a corner and crashed, also holding up Markus, leaving just three in front into the final 10km.<\/p>\n<p>With 8.5km to go, on a really steep section near the top of the climb, Blasi simply set a pace that others could not follow, to go solo ahead of Muzic and Towers. The pair behind had nothing left to respond to Blasi, who quickly built a lead of 30 seconds and comfortably powered to the win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:66.70%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/H8Gfp9nfuyGpeYre2a9EMQ.jpg\" alt=\"Blasi looks back as she gets separation\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/H8Gfp9nfuyGpeYre2a9EMQ.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/H8Gfp9nfuyGpeYre2a9EMQ.jpg\" class=\"rounded-[var(--image--border-radius,0)] inline\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>(Image credit: Getty Images)<a id=\"elk-results\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/>Results<a id=\"elk-aaf947fc-330a-473a-8f5f-58c4f3f6246a\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-8cb02eaf-6a46-426e-b2c0-367258d9422d\">Results powered by <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/firstcycling.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-url=\"https:\/\/firstcycling.com\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\">FirstCycling<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rider of the moment Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) stormed to another win at Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-683101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}