Bronzini wins stage 2 of Giro Rosa

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Giorgia Bronzini sprinted to victory in the second stage of the Giro Rosa. The Italian Wiggle Honda rider beat Rabo-Liv's Marianne Vos and Alé-Cipollini's Shelley Olds on the line. Vos kept the pink leader's jersey.

"Giorgia really wanted this stage," Wiggle Honda team manager Rochelle Gilmore told Cyclingnews. "She asked everyone for full 100% support and usually when she does that, she delivers."

The second stage of the Giro Rosa was a relatively flat and uneventful ride around Frattamagiore, near Naples in the south of Italy. Just like the stage the 150 remaining riders finished on Saturday, the race was on a circuit consisting of six 20-kilometre laps.

It was another hot and dry day in the Campania region, where the 20-team peloton is residing for the first three days of the 10-day stage race. Vos started the race in pink after winning the first stage on Saturday.

Hitec Products and Alé Cipollini were the teams working in the first half of the race. With Shelley Olds and Chloe Hosking, the teams brought strong sprinters to the Giro Rosa. The pace was high at over 41 kilometres/ hour average, and nobody managed to get away.

Rusvelo's Alexandra Burchenkova tried her luck. halfway into the stage. She rode solo and managed to gain a lead of 55 seconds on the peloton, but on the last 20-kilometre lap she was caught. The Fluo yellow team of American sprinter Olds did the lion's share of the work to catch the Russian.

Valentina Bastianelli broke free for a few kilometres in the final, but despite the SC Michela Fanini Rox rider's efforts, the predicted bunch sprint proved inevitable.

Bronzini won the sprint by over a bike length on Vos and Olds. "The team atmosphere is just perfect," the winner said. "Motivation is high at the moment."

Bronzini, two-time world champion took her fourth victory of the season by rounding off Wiggle Honda's teamwork to perfection.

"I asked my team to get me to Marianne Vos' wheel," Bronzini said after her victory. "And they did just that. I waited 'til the right moment and went."

"We have a great team out here, with fit and healthy riders," team manager Gilmore said. "It's important to have great staff, which we have onsite, and I believe that this will help the riders deliver."

Vos kept the lead in the overall classification with Rabo-Liv teammate Pauline Ferrand Prevot sitting in second place ahead of Hitec's Elisa Longo Borghini.

The third stage on Monday will move the Giro Rosa peloton up north. From the town of Caserta, where the prologue took place, the riders will face 125.3 kilometres to San Donato Val di Comino where a five-kilometre climb will decide the race.

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