Petra Stiasny wins Angliru on an O2 VAM

Who said the age of the climbing bike is dead? Human Powered Health’s Petra Stiasny raced the Factor O2 VAM to a stunning victory at the top of the feared Angliru, widely considered the hardest climb in the European professional peloton. She carved her name in history as the first woman to win at the top of the Spanish climb, taking her first WorldTour victory and the final stage of the Vuelta España Femenina in the process. 

The diminutive pure climber from Switzerland burst onto the world cycling stage in 2022 when as a 20-year-old, she was able to hang with the best riders on her way to a top five on the very difficult Thyon 2000 summit finish at the Tour de Romandie. Her accomplishment today eclipses that impressive performance, as she succeeded in pacing and eventually riding every contender off her wheel while tackling the almost impossible ramps of the Angliru.

"I still can't believe it honestly, I'm lost for words. For me it's incredible”

Petra said shortly after the finish. “When they announced that the Angliru would be part of the Vuelta, I had only one thing in my head. For me it was a dream, a dream to win this stage. Finally, today was the day I was looking forward so long to. At the beginning of the week, I told my sports director, 'When I arrive at the Angliru, I feel free, I feel in my place, my happy place."

A rarified bike

On a race day like stage stage 7 of the 2026 Vuelta España Femenina, which included not only four categorised climbs, but long sections of valley road riding, the Factor O2 VAM offers the perfect mix of aero-elements to be able to negotiate the exposed valley roads while remaining super lightweight and responsive. It’s a combination that is particularly helpful to a rider of Stiasny’s stature, at just 160 cm tall and weighing in the low 40s kg, having a bike that works with her, floating over the undulating roads of Spain, ensured that she would have the upper hand once the gradients hit constant double digits. 

The Factor O2 VAM represents the pinnacle of bicycle design and manufacturing. Factor built a state-of-the-art factory in order to produce the O2 VAM to the highest possible standards. Thanks to our expert carbon technicians, the O2 VAM has a technically advanced carbon layup that strategically uses TeXtreme®, Toray®, and Nippon Graphite® Pitch-Based Fibre to ensure the sublime ride quality is reinforced with exceptional rigidity and responsiveness. 

Focusing on the aerodynamics of the frame as much as the low weight, our engineers worked to create all-new, aggressively truncated airfoil shapes for key frame sections. They focused on aerodynamic principles, which are centred around low Reynolds number airflow behaviour. This design feature makes the O2 VAM especially fast in low yaw conditions, when there is either no wind, a straight headwind, or a slight crosswind. Consequently, the frame shape manipulates the formation of the ‘laminar separation bubble’ and subsequent reattachment of the airflow, reducing the drag. 

Felicidades

It’s hard winning bike races. When riders who rarely win, take a big win ahead of the best in the world, it makes it all the sweeter. And when that happens on a Factor that has been developed and designed for that exact use scenario, it makes the whole Factor team very proud to see such an emphatic proof of product. 

This wasn’t the first time that has happened, and it won’t be the last. But it may have been the most breathless. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, congratulations to Petra Stiasny and the whole Human Powered Health team.