On stage 2 of La Vuelta Femenina, Carline Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) won the only QOM sprint of the day to take the polka-dot jersey.The 25-year-old Swinkels then fought hard to hold onto the lead in the mountains until stage 8, where she took the polka-dot jersey He made two successful breakaway attempts to keep the polka-dot jersey.

But with Sunday's finish climb to Valdeschi bringing extra points to the QOM battle, Swinkels had more work to do to hold off the charge of overall leader Demi Vollering (SD Works-Protime). 89.5-km stage. With just a few kilometers to go, Swinkels rode a commanding ride, even though his plan to stop the eventual overall winner fell through.

"I did my best on every stage to the end and enjoyed racing aggressively. I really gave it my all on the last stage and I went home with no regrets," Swinkels told Cycling News after the final stage.

Going into the race, she had no particular ambitions in the mountain class and only saw the climb up Puerto de Loronet on stage 2 as an opportunity to test herself. With a white jersey with purple, turquoise, and yellow dots, Swinkels did not give it up without a fight.

"Coming back from a long training period, I wanted to test my legs, and winning the QOM jersey was a real nice reward. Of course, it has been my goal since then," he said of the second stage, in which he finished third in the sprint.

On stage 3, Swinkels took mountain points from the peloton to defend the jersey, and on stage 5, he was first over the second category, Alto de la Monasterio de San Juan de la Peña.

The next day, Swinkels narrowly defended the polka-dot jersey: Volaring, the runner-up on stage 6, which finished with a first-category climb to La Laguna Negra, tied Swinkels' 20 points. Vollering finished second on stage 6, which finished with a first-class climb to La Laguna Negra, tying Swinkels' 20 points.

On the morning of stage 8, race organizers announced that the day's finishing climb to Valdeschi, marked in the road book as a first category climb, would be this year's Cima Estera Dominguez, with more points than the first category Puerto de la Morcuera during the stage He announced that it would be awarded.

"Maybe it wasn't the best way to award points for the QOM. If you want the GC leader to also win the polka dot jersey, I think it is a good way. The way the race is going, there is no breakaway group in the final stage, so if you get a lot of points in the final stage, it is almost impossible for anyone else to win the jersey," Swinkels said of the change, albeit belatedly.

Despite this, 25-year-old Swinkels was true to his word, joining a 13-man breakaway group and following attacks by Brody Chapman (Lidl-Trek) and Sara Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) in Puerto de la Morcuera.

Eventually Swinkels could follow no further and was caught just before the leaders. However, Swinkels recovered on the descent and attacked again, trying to close the time gap to the GC contenders on the climb to the finish.

Swinkels gained a minute lead on the climb, but was eventually caught a third of the way up the climb, and Voerling took both the mountains and the overall win.

"I'm proud of this Vuelta anyway. I'm happy to have worn the polka-dot jersey for six days, to have escaped so many times, to have supported the GC leaders, and to come home with a podium finish. I'm looking forward to the next race."