Giro Rosa: Annemiek van Vleuten wins Strade Bianche-style stage 2

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Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) has put her mark on the Giro Rosa already, winning stage 2 with a solo attack in the final and taking the race lead. The world champion shook off her competitors on the gravel climb that crested 11km from the finish and continued to increase her lead.

Even a mechanical could not stop the 37-year-old, who won the stage by 1:16 ahead of Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope).

"I think my face says it all. I went so deep because you never know what’s coming and you have to take every second, so I went from the bottom [of the Seggiano climb] to take as much time as possible because at this Giro we don’t have an big uphill finish so it can be a game of seconds in the end. Every second can be useful," Van Vleuten said at the finish line.

"It was a time trial from the start of the gravel section. I wanted to hit it as the first rider, and I did, and then I went."

Van Vleuten now leads the overall classification by 1:18 over Van der Breggen and Niewiadoma.

"It’s always very special in Italy to wear the pink jersey," Van Vleuten said. "I’m here with my team to go for it for a third time. There are so many days to come. I’m not thinking about pink. I’ll race, as I always do, and focus day by day because that’s really needed at this Giro d’Italia."

How it unfolded

Stage 2, covering 124.8km from Paganico to Arcidosso, was always going to be an important day for the overall race as it contained over 2,800 metres of altitude gain. Though there was only one classified climb, the stage was a continuous up-and-down.

There was no breakaway on the first half of the stage, though a 1,500-metre gravel section and the many unclassified climbs reduced the peloton to about 50 riders. 

Julie van de Velde (Lotto Soudal) attacked on an uphill section 63km from the finish and held a lead of up to a minute, but before the decisive gravel climb to Seggiano started, both she and a counterattack by Lizzy Banks (Équipe Paule Ka) had been brought back.

Van Vleuten went hard from the start of the climb, quickly dropping all her competitors. On the steepest part of the slope, though, the world champion could not get any grip with her back wheel. She had to dismount and run with her bike, cyclo-cross style, to a flatter section where she remounted.

Cresting the climb 40 seconds ahead of Van der Breggen and a minute ahead of Niewiadoma and Uttrup Ludwig, Van Vleuten further increased her advantage on the run-in to the finish. 

Van der Breggen lost ground to the two chasers who caught up with her, but the Dutch champion still had enough left to finish second on the uphill finishing straight.

Watch the Giro Rosa stage 2 video highlights below.

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