In the second stage of the Catalan three-day race, the riders faced two first-category climbs. At the foot of the final climb, Team Visma | Lease a Bike immediately showed its intentions. Fem van Empel was the first to attack, followed by Femke de Vries. After both riders were caught by the reduced peloton, it was Vos who made her move.

The multiple world champion was initially joined by four riders, including Markus, but after a second attack nobody was able to follow. In the final kilometres, Vos kept up a high pace, after which she took her sixth victory of the season.

"This is bizarre. I never expected to be able to compete for the win in a mountain stage", Vos said. "The legs felt good and on the final climb I tried to keep up as long as possible. As the group got smaller and smaller, I still saw many teammates around me. That was a geeat feeling and motivated me tremendously."

"The plan was for Fem and Femke to make the race hard from the start of the climb. They executed that superbly", Vos complimented her teammates. "After Femke's attack, I looked around and saw that we were all still there. At that moment I thought: now I'll give it a shot. There was a response to that at first, but later there was none. It's very special to win a stage in this way."

With one stage to go, Vos has a one-minute lead over teammate Markus. The number three, Katrine Aalerud, follows at one minute and eight seconds. "We will definitely defend the jersey. Tomorrow there are still some hills on the programme, but it's a totally different stage to today. I think a lot of teams still want some action, so it will definitely not be easy."