Ladies Tour of Norway: Marianne Vos wins stage 2

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Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) won stage 2 of the Ladies Tour of Norway in spectacular fashion, attacking on a climb with 6km to go and just holding off the peloton. Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) finished second and Marta Bastianelli (Team Virtu Cycling) was third.

Stage 1 winner and overall leader Lorena Wiebes crashed 16km from the line. She came back to the front and finished in seventh place but lost the yellow jersey to Vos.

"The finish was not ideal for Marianne's sprint, that is why we chose this tactic," said CCC-Liv sports director Jeroen Blijlevens after the stage. "Marianne gave it a try with a strong group at 13 km to go. When this escape didn't get any room, she went solo in the final kilometres. But the gap to the peloton was very small. The team did good work behind to disrupt the chase, and Marianne just made it."

How it happened

The race had returned to Østfold for stage 2 between Mysen and Askim. The two towns are only 12km apart, but the stage was 133.6km as the peloton had to ride a long loop south of Mysen that included two classified climbs before heading to Askim for three laps of a hilly and technical finishing circuit.

Four early attackers were caught just in time for local rider Emilie Moberg (Team Virtu Cycling) to win the first intermediate sprint. Soraya Paladin (Alé Cipollini) took maximum points at the first mountain sprint, and then her teammate Diana Peñuela went on a breakaway. Peñuela was first over the second classified climb but got caught on the descent. Paladin was second over the top, defending her mountain jersey.

Moberg was unchallenged at the second intermediate sprint in Mysen, accumulating enough points to take over the points jersey that she will wear on stage 3 that finishes in her hometown Halden. After an attack by Anna Henderson (Drops) was brought back, the race reached the eight-kilometre finishing circuit where things really took off.

An attack by Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) 23km from the finish led to a strong group of seven riders that also included Jeanne Korevaar (CCC-Liv), Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo), Barbara Guarischi (Team Virtu Cycling), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans), and Floortje Mackaij (Team Sunweb). But this group never got a good cooperation and was caught with 19km to go.

At the start of the penultimate lap, Wiebes crashed, apparently hurting her left arm, but quickly getting on the bike again. While the yellow jersey was chasing back, Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM) attacked on the steepest part of the circuit, taking Vos, Winder, and Paladin with her. Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) bridged to the front, and the group worked well together as Mitchelton-Scott chased hard in the peloton.

When this quintet was caught just inside the 10-kilometre mark, Brown tried a counterattack. Vos was on her wheel immediately, but they couldn't get away. On the final lap, Vos manoeuvred herself to the front on a technical descent and attacked into a short, steep climb six kilometres from the line, quickly opening a sizable gap as the peloton had split into several groups behind her.

Though the peloton came back together and Canyon-SRAM, in particular, organised the chase, Vos kept a gap of 12 seconds to the last two kilometres. Brown launched a final attempt to bridge to Vos but was reeled in again. The CCC-Liv leader still had an advantage of six seconds entering the final kilometre and narrowly held off the sprinters in a nail-biting finish.

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