Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal) won stage 2 of the Vuelta Femenina in a reduced bunch sprint, crossing the line ahead of Franziska Koch and Évita Muzic (both FDJ United-Suez).
Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) had attacked on a short climb just before Rüegg's crash and eked out a 21-second gap, but when Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-Suez) accelerated on the climb towards the finish, the Norwegian was quickly reeled in.
Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) launched an attack near the top of the climb with 1.7km to go and got a small gap together with Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), Liane Lippert (Movistar), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal), but since the group did not cooperate, they were brought back right before the flamme rouge.
Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) tried to anticipate the sprint with an attack on the final kilometre but only ended up leading out the others.
Van der Breggen brought Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) to the front with 200 metres to go, but as she launched her sprint, Kopecky suffered a mechanical. Instead, Bossuyt took the lead and held off Koch and Muzic to win the stage.
“I was not expecting to win today because I was actually really far in the back on the climb. But I made up a lot of places on the downhill and just came with a lot of speed, and I think nobody was expecting that,” said Bossuyt.
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“We had a plan for the sprint, but I needed to see what happened on the climb, whether there were a lot of attacks or not. Luckily, it was one hard pace uphill, so I could just hold on and then finish it off,” she finished.
How it unfolded
Although there were no classified climbs all day, the 109.8km stage from Lobios to San Cibrao das Viñas was an almost-continuous up-and-down with over 2000 altitude metres.
A first breakaway by Aniek van Alphen (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health) on the uncategorised Alto do Vieiro did not last long, and the break of the day only formed when Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Premier Tech), Julie Van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal), Marieke Meert (Lotto-Intermarché), Léa Rondel (Mayenne-Monbana-MyPie), and Andrea Casagranda (Vini Fantini-BePink) got away after 44km of racing.
The gap between the five escapees and the peloton yo-yoed between 23 seconds and 1:08 minutes. With 33km to go, Rondel and Casagranda lost contact with the others on a climb, leaving three riders at the front. Schrempf, Van de Velde, and Meert took the bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in A Merca before being caught 27km from the finish.
After a flurry of unsuccessful attacks, Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal), Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ), Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek) and Aalerud got a small gap with 24km to go but were quickly reeled in again.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Kerbaol led the peloton down most of the high-speed descent that followed, then Uno-X Mobility came to the fore and set up Aalerud’s attack on a short climb. The Norwegian climber crested the climb ten seconds ahead of the peloton. Rüegg and Ciabocco crashed right after the top, and the GC leader had to abandon the race while Ciabocco lost 2:29 minutes and relinquished the white U23 jersey to Lore De Schepper (AG Insurance-Soudal).
Aalerud temporarily increased her advantage to 21 seconds on the descent but was only 12 seconds ahead at the roundabout where the final climb started. Nonetheless, she could hold off the peloton until Berthet made her move with 2.9km to go and quickly closed the gap.
Blasi’s attack led to a front group of five with a small gap, but the lack of cooperation saw them caught again. Kopecky’s mechanical caused her to swerve into Bossuyt, and this would see her relegated to 36th place on the stage while Bossuyt could celebrate the stage win.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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