Racing

EF Education-Oatly opens grand tour season with the Vuelta Femenina

Cédrine Kerbaol and Noemi Rüegg anchor our roster

May 2, 2026

Sunday kicks off the 12th edition of the Vuelta Femenina and the first grand tour of the season promises to be one of the hardest stage races of the entire year.

We’re bringing Henrietta Christie, Babette van der Wolf, Kristen Faulkner, Alice Towers, Cédrine Kerbaol, Noemi Rüegg, and Alexis Magner to the Spanish race.

The Vuelta opens with a series of five punchy stages across windswept northern Spain before a pair of mountain stages determine the final general classification. In particular, the seventh and final stage sees the debut of the mythical Angliru in the race. The brutal climb stretches out for just over 12 kilometers with an average gradient of 9.4 percent and a handful of sections hitting over 20 percent.

With Cédrine and Noemi anchoring our roster, the squad is excited to get the racing underway. Read on for Noemi and Cédrine’s thoughts on the Spanish grand tour.

Noemi Rüegg

It's a really exciting course. It's going to be pretty tough, and the GC will for sure be decided on the last two days.
But anything can happen in the first few days, and as a team we have a lot of chances to go for a stage win in the first days, so that's really exciting to be in this position.

Basically all the first four stages, I'm really looking forward to. The finish on this first stage is really nice, because it's slightly uphill, so that suits me really well. All of the first five days suit us as a team really well because you can also go for a breakaway, and then the last two days are basically for Cédrine, and she is ready for that, and we are here to support her. 


I really like getting back into stage races now, because it really brings the team together, and you get a new chance every day. You can adapt from day to day and you get into a really nice routine so I really enjoy that. It's great to spend a lot of time with the squad and we're looking forward to the Vuelta. 


Cédrine Kerbaol

For the moment [ahead of the race], the atmosphere is really chill in the team. Everyone wants to do well, but without stress or anything. I think we will start feeling the pressure when we have the team meeting. We really want to give our best, have fun on the bike, and fight hard.

It’s the first proper stage race of the year so of course it's very different from what we’ve raced in the first part of the season. It’s a bit of an endurance race as well so I’m super excited. And it’s absolutely amazing if it's raining this week. Rain makes it a bit more like the Hunger Games, a bit harder, and helps us to make the selection.

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