The Netherlands Annamiek van Vleuten won La Vuelta Femenina by only nine seconds from compatriot Demi Vollering ©Getty Images

Tour de France Femmes champion Annemiek van Vleuten of The Netherlands has won La Vuelta Femenina by a margin of only nine seconds.

The Olympic time trial gold medallist, riding for Movistar, headed the general classification with a combined time of 19 hours 00min 11sec for the 741 kilometres course ahead of her Dutch compatriot Demi Vollering of SD Worx in 19:00:20 in race that is part of the International Cycling Union Women's World Tour. 

Italy’s Gaia Realini of Trek-Segafredo placed third was a further 2min 41sec back in third in an overall time of 19:02.52.

Vollering had led in the standings until the penultimate 106.7km stage from Castro Urdiales to Laredo when her rivals attacked she took a toilet break and was subsequently caught in a cross wind and unable to recover.

Demi Vollering finished 56 seconds ahead of her rival Annamiek Van Vleuten in the seventh and final stage but it was not enough for overall victory ©Getty Images
Demi Vollering finished 56 seconds ahead of her rival Annamiek Van Vleuten in the seventh and final stage but it was not enough for overall victory ©Getty Images

When the seventh and last 937km stage from Pola de Siero to Lagos de Covadonga began, van Vleuten had an advantage of 71 seconds.

Vollering broke away from her rival five kilometres from the finish and finished in 2:43:02 to record her second stage win of the race.

Realini was second, 11 seconds behind, but a supreme effort by vlan Vleuten enabled her to keep the deficit to 56 seconds which was enough for the overall victory.

"I fought all the way to the end, knowing that I didn’t have my best legs already early on, maybe I was paying for yesterday’s effort,  but I never gave up,” the 40-year-old van Vleuten said.

"I kept on pushing, knowing that my rivals were also getting tired. It was an amazing team job again today, this Vuelta is a victory for the Movistar Team as a whole."

 Van Vleuten who last year became the first woman to achieve the Triple Crown of Giro Donne, Tour de France Femmes and World Championship road race, now completed a hat-trick of victories in the Spanish classic.

Vollering admitted that events on the penultimate stage had been critical.

"The whole team fought really hard for the victory because we had something to make up for after yesterday’s stage," Vollering conceded.

"Two stage wins are really nice and it was close for the General Classification too, it was sad that I wasn’t able to battle with the best yesterday because because I could have won the GC [general classification], 

"Today we have proven our worth, and I’m very happy about our performance.

The race had previously been known as The Challenge by La Vuelta and was taking place as La Vuelta Femenina for the first time.

Van Vleuten and Vollering are set to race again in the three-day Itzulia Tour of Basque Country which is due to begin on Friday (May 12).