Bastinelli wins stage 2 in Valencia

Marta Bastianelli (Ale Cipollini) opened her account for the season with a victory on stage 2 of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana. The Italian topped race leader Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) in the bunch sprint. Alicia Gonzalez (Movistar) was third.

"We raced so well," an excited Bastianelli said after her win. "The climb was hard and we have been perfect to stay in the front with the strongest athletes. We did a great job with Ane (Santesteban), and Mayuko (Hagiwara) was in the lead, then Anna (Trevisi) came from behind to help me really well for the sprint. Thanks to the team for this magnificent result".

A crash disrupted the run-in to the finish, with Lotta Lepistö (Cervelo-Bigla) and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) among the fallers, but both finished the stage.

Barnes kept her race lead of five seconds over Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who was eight on the stage, with Bastianelli remaining third at seven seconds.

The stage started off with a solo attack from Nicole Steigenga (Swapit Agolico), but with one classified climb on the route, she was swept up by an attack from Kathrin Hammes (Trek-Drops) as more riders then bridged across..

There were 15 riders in the leading group by the time they reached the top of the only climb of the day, where Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Cervelo Bigla) took the points ahead of teammate Moolman-Pasio and Niewiadoma.

But the long, flat run-in to Vila-Real proved to be the move's undoing, and the peloton came together to set up the bunch sprint. A crash in one of the final turns disrupted Barnes' lead-out train, and Bastianelli was able to use her long sprint to take the stage over the Briton.

Brief Results