Giro d'Italia Women: Anna Henderson claims maiden WorldTour victory on stage 2 and takes pink jersey on uphill finish to Aprica

Great Britain's Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) won stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia Women in a two-up sprint ahead of Dilyxine Miermont (Ceratizit). The two riders had attacked from the peloton with 41.4km to go and built an advantage of more than three minutes before the climb to Aprica began.

Although the peloton steadily reduced the gap, at the flamme rouge it was clear that the two escapees would sprint for the stage. Miermont led onto the finishing straight, and Henderson launched her sprint in the last 200 metres, easily passing the Frenchwoman to win.

Twenty six seconds later, Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) led home the reduced peloton that contained many of the main GC riders.

Starting the stage 27 seconds down on race leader Marlen Reusser (Movistar), who finished in the Paladin group, Henderson also takes the pink jersey going into stage 3.

"Pink is my favourite colour!" Henderson exclaimed in the finish area when she heard that she was the new GC leader.

“As a team, we made the plan to be aggressive because we knew it would be a hard final and we have a really good team for attacking. They gave us three minutes. I knew that once we had two minutes at the bottom [of the climb], we could make it, and I just kept working," Henderson continued in the official post-race interview.

"We’re here for stages, this is what we came to do, and I’m so thankful for my teammates for supporting me. I’m just beyond grateful and happy; I can’t believe it. It’s my first WorldTour victory, my first individual Grand Tour victory. I’m in shock," she said.

How it unfolded

From the start in Clusone, riders faced a 9.5km neutral zone before the 92km stage began for real. After descending into the Val Camonica, the road was gently uphill for most of the day, punctuated by an unclassified climb to Bienno. The last 14km were the official finishing climb to Aprica, with a steep section 12km from the finish.

Although several riders tried their luck, no breakaway succeeded in getting away at first, and the peloton covered 42.7km in the first hour of racing. Finally, Miermont made her move and was followed by Henderson. They kept going and quickly had a one-minute advantage while Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) changed one of her shoes without stepping off the bike.

Yurani Blanco (Human Powered Health) went on the chase behind the two frontrunners with 32km to go but ended up on a fruitless chase between the front and the peloton. At the intermediate sprint in Malonno, Henderson and Miermont were 2:32 minutes ahead of Blanco, the peloton following at 3:04 minutes.

Blanco was reeled in before the peloton passed the 20km mark, 2:55 minutes behind Henderson and Miermont, but as the pace picked up, the gap had been reduced to 2:10 minutes with 15km left to the finish.

Sarah Gigante and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (both AG Insurance-Soudal) pushed hard on the steepest part of the climb to Aprica, seriously reducing the gap to the frontrunners as well as the size of the peloton, with Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes (both SD Worx-Protime), and Vos among the dropped riders. Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) attacked out of the group twice, but her moves were quickly neutralised.

Pink jersey Marlen Reusser then launched an attack herself with 10km to go that strung out the group. Only Aalerud could hold her wheel while Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) had to leave a gap. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) realised the danger and jumped across, and soon the pace went out again.

At the 5km to go mark, Henderson and Miermont were 59 seconds ahead of a reduced peloton of 21 riders while Vos and her teammates were chasing another 30 seconds behind. Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) took charge at the front of the peloton and reduced the gap to 33 seconds with 3km to go, but the two escapees held on to sprint for the stage, with Henderson crossing the line first.

The GC group finished 26 seconds down on the winner in the end, though notably missing from that group was Kopecky, who conceded 2:08 on the first real climb of this year's Giro.

With her stage victory, Henderson also takes the lead in the points and mountains classifications, but as she has the pink GC leader’s jersey on her shoulders on stage 3, Miermont gets to sport the red points jersey while Paladin will wear the blue mountain jersey. Niedermaier defended her lead in the U23 classification and keeps the white jersey.

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