Leleivyte wins Giro dell'Emilia Internazionale Donne Elite

Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia Vaiano) won the Giro dell'Emilia Internazionale Donne Elite on the climb to San Luca on Saturday. The Lithuanian rider won the one-day event solo, a few seconds ahead of Cuba's Arlenis Sierra (Astana) and Denmark's Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Cervelo Bigla).

The women raced a flat 89.8km from Bologna to San Luca, that included two intermediate sprints at 62.9km in San Matteo delle Decima and at 71km in Agricola Caretti, before the run-in to Bologna and a final kick up in San Luca.

The field was all together coming into the San Luca finale climb. It was a sprint into the bottom, for the best possible position, of the gruelling 18 per cent grade that included double hairpin turn called Curva delle Orfanelle. It was Leleivyte that proved the most powerful of the bunch to take the day's victory.

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