Four days in northern Spain, settled on the final climb
A compact, punchy stage race in Castile that rewards climbers and all-rounders, usually decided on its final climb and serving as a key mid-season form check.
Vuelta a Burgos Féminas is a four-day women's WorldTour cycling stage race held each May in the province of Burgos in northern Spain. First run in 2015, it has quickly become a proving ground for stage-race contenders.
The Vuelta a Burgos Féminas is a four-day women’s stage race in the province of Burgos, in northern Spain. First held in 2015 with 64 riders, it joined the Women’s WorldTour in 2021. Four of its six editions since then have finished on the climb to Lagunas de Neila.
The first edition ran from May 1 to 3, 2015, over 205 kilometers. It opened with an individual time trial in Medina de Pomar, and Belén López of the Lointek team won the time trial and the overall. The provincial government of Burgos organizes the race through its institute for sport and youth.
In the first years the stages doubled as local races. In 2018 they were the third Gran Premio Ciudad de Medina de Pomar, the fourth Gran Premio de Villarcayo and the first Gran Premio de Poza de la Sal. Mavi García won in 2016, along with the points and mountains classifications. Eider Merino followed in 2017 and Beatriu Gómez in 2018.
In 2019 the race became a four-day UCI event, with 17 teams from 10 countries. Stine Borgli of Norway won, and García finished third. The home rider at the presentation was Sara Martín, from Aranda de Duero, who had won the Villarcayo stage and the points classification a year earlier. There was no race in 2020.
The race came back in May 2021 as part of the Women’s WorldTour, with 105 riders from 20 teams. The last stage ran from Quintanar de la Sierra to Lagunas de Neila, and Anna van der Breggen won it. She took the overall ahead of Annemiek van Vleuten and Demi Vollering, and the points and mountains classifications as well. Her SD Worx teammate Niamh Fisher-Black was the best young rider.
A year later Vollering was the strongest rider on Lagunas de Neila and did not win the race. García had won stage 3 at Ojo Guareña and started the last day in the lead. About six kilometers from the top Vollering went clear with Juliette Labous, who now races as Juliette Berthet, and Paula Patiño. The pace behind them was too high for García, who lost contact. The three were caught, and Labous attacked again with Vollering and Fisher-Black on her wheel.
Fisher-Black set the pace for Vollering, who dropped Labous in the last kilometer and won the stage by 17 seconds. Vollering had lost 34 seconds on stage 3, so the overall went to Labous. “Demi was so strong, the strongest of the day, I am just so happy that I won the GC,” Labous said. Évita Muzic finished second overall and Vollering third.
Vollering won the next two editions. In 2023 she attacked on Lagunas de Neila, dropped Shirin van Anrooij eight kilometers from the top and won by 1 minute 35 seconds. Van Anrooij finished second overall.
In 2024 the last stage finished in Canicosa de la Sierra, after the Alto de Rozavientos. On a cold day Vollering caught Lucinda Brand, the last rider from the breakaway, 16 kilometers from the finish and beat her by 50 seconds. She thanked the sprinter Lorena Wiebes for putting her in position before the climb. Her legs were too cold to attack a second time, she said, so she kept the pace high and hoped to reach the top alone. Muzic was second overall again.
The 2025 route left out Lagunas de Neila. On stage 3, Marlen Reusser rode away on the steepest part of the 7.8-kilometer climb to Picón Blanco, 4.4 kilometers from the top. She won by 40 seconds from Yara Kastelijn and took the race lead.
The next day she won a 9.4-kilometer time trial from Villasana de Mena to Lezana de Mena, six seconds faster than Labous. It was the race’s first time trial since 2017, and Reusser’s first in 20 months. Elisa Longo Borghini moved past Kastelijn into second overall.
The eleventh edition, in 2026, returned to Lagunas de Neila for its last stage, which started in Gumiel de Mercado. Sara Martín, now riding for Movistar, spent the day in the breakaway and was caught seven kilometers from the finish. On the hardest part of the climb Muzic went clear with Kastelijn.
Kastelijn attacked 1.2 kilometers from the line and won the stage and the race, her first overall win in a WorldTour stage race. Muzic finished second overall for the third time. Usoa Ostolaza was third, the first Spanish rider on the final podium since García in 2019.
Vollering, van der Breggen, and Reusser have all won here, a sign of the race's tactical range and its place as a genuine WorldTour proving ground.
This race compresses the demands of a Grand Tour into four days. The route mixes hilly stages and climbs, and in 2025 included a time trial for the first time since 2017, rewarding versatility rather than single-discipline dominance. It sits at a useful point in the calendar when form is still being built or tested, which opens the door for breakout performances. Demi Vollering won it twice, Anna van der Breggen claimed it once, and Marlen Reusser proved that a strong time trialist can control a short stage race when the climbing is selective but not extreme.
2026 results
This edition is complete.
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 🇳🇱Yara Kastelijn |
| 2025 | 🇨🇭Marlen Reusser |
| 2024 | 🇳🇱Demi Vollering |
| 2023 | 🇳🇱Demi Vollering |
| 2022 | 🇫🇷Juliette Labous |
| 2021 | 🇳🇱Anna van der Breggen |
| 2019 | 🇳🇴Stine Borgli |
| 2018 | 🇪🇸Beatriu Gómez |
| 2017 | 🇪🇸Eider Merino |
| 2016 | 🇪🇸Mavi García |
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 🇪🇸Belén López |
Yara Kastelijn attacked 1.2 kilometers from the line at Lagunas de Neila and won the stage and the race, her first overall win in a WorldTour stage race. Évita Muzic finished second overall, as she had in 2022 and 2024, and Usoa Ostolaza was third.
Marlen Reusser won alone on Picón Blanco on stage 3 and won the time trial a day later, the race's first since 2017. She took the overall, points and mountains classifications.
Demi Vollering dropped Juliette Labous in the last kilometer at Lagunas de Neila and won the stage by 17 seconds. She had lost 34 seconds on stage 3, so the overall went to Labous, with Évita Muzic second and Vollering third.
After a year without an edition the race came back as part of the Women's WorldTour, with 105 riders from 20 teams. Anna van der Breggen won the last stage at Lagunas de Neila and the overall, ahead of Annemiek van Vleuten and Demi Vollering.
The first edition ran from May 1 to 3, 2015, over 205 kilometers, with 64 riders. Belén López of the Lointek team won the opening time trial in Medina de Pomar and the overall.
The climb to Lagunas de Neila closed the race in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2026. Anna van der Breggen in 2021, Demi Vollering in 2023 and Yara Kastelijn in 2026 won the stage there and the race with it.
In 2022 Mavi García won stage 3 at Ojo Guareña and started the last day in the lead, and Demi Vollering lost 34 seconds. Vollering won at Lagunas de Neila a day later by 17 seconds, and the race went to Juliette Labous.
Lorena Wiebes won two of the first three stages in 2023 and in 2026, and one each in 2024 and 2025. She started the last stage of 2023 as race leader, and Demi Vollering took the race from her at Lagunas de Neila.
Belén López won the opening time trial in Medina de Pomar and the overall in the first edition, in 2015. In 2025 Marlen Reusser won a 9.4-kilometer time trial to Lezana de Mena on the last day, the race's first since 2017, by six seconds from Juliette Labous.
The race usually gives its first days to sprinters and breakaways on the open roads of the province and saves the hardest climbing for the end. Lagunas de Neila, a climb of about 12 kilometers, closed the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2026 editions. Other years have ended differently: at Canicosa de la Sierra in 2024, and in 2025 with a summit finish on Picón Blanco followed by a short time trial, the race's first since 2017, which Marlen Reusser won to seal the overall. The stages are compact, which keeps the racing aggressive from the start. Crosswinds are possible on exposed plateaus, and breakaways can survive if the GC teams miscalculate. The overall is usually settled on the last climb, so the earlier stages are about reaching it without losing time.
The last stage finished here in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2026, from four different starts: Quintanar de la Sierra, Covarrubias, Tordómar and Gumiel de Mercado. In 2023 Demi Vollering dropped Shirin van Anrooij eight kilometers from the top and won by 1 minute 35 seconds.
The finish of stage 3 in 2025, a climb of 7.8 kilometers at the end of a 95.7-kilometer stage from Soncillo. Marlen Reusser rode away 4.4 kilometers from the top, on a part steeper than 11 percent, and won by 40 seconds from Yara Kastelijn.
The first edition opened with a time trial in Medina de Pomar in 2015, and the town was on the route in nine of the first eleven editions. Lorena Wiebes won a stage there in 2023 and Mischa Bredewold in 2026.
Stage 3 ran from Medina de Pomar to Ojo Guareña in 2021, when Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won, and in 2022, when Mavi García did. In 2025 the race crossed it as a climb on the way to Picón Blanco.
Villarcayo hosted a stage in each of the first six editions, from 2015 to 2021. Sara Martín, from Aranda de Duero, won there in 2018, when the stage was run as the fourth Gran Premio de Villarcayo.
Won in 2023 and 2024, with two stage wins in each year, and took the points and mountains classifications as well in 2024. In 2022 she won the last stage at Lagunas de Neila and finished third overall.
Won the first WorldTour edition in 2021 as world champion, along with the points and mountains classifications. At Lagunas de Neila only Annemiek van Vleuten could stay with her to the line.
Won in 2016, along with the points and mountains classifications, and finished third in 2019. In 2022 she won stage 3 at Ojo Guareña and started the last day in the lead.
Won in 2025 for Movistar with stage wins on Picón Blanco and in the time trial, her first time trial in 20 months. Her winning margin was almost two minutes.
