Gillow wins in Pescocostanzo

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Queenslander Shara Gillow (Bizkaia-Durango) confirmed the promise she showed earlier this year, winning the second stage of the Giro Donne in an impressive display of power on the uphill drag to Pescocostanzo.

Gillow, who won the road race and time trial titles at the Oceania championships on top of her and Australian time trial victory, powered away from Garmin-Cervélo's Sharon Laws on the final kick to the line to not only win the stage, but also take over the lead on the general classification.

The pair were part of a 14-rider breakaway that escaped early in the stage, which included mountains classification leader Valentina Scandolara, French champion Christel Ferrier Bruneau and Sylwia Kapusta (all Gauss), Iris Slappendel and Laws (Garmin - Cervelo), Linda Villumsen and Chantal Blaak (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), Grace Verbeke (Topsport Vlaanderen), Ina Yoko Teutenberg (HTC Highroad Women), Patricia Schwager (Nederland Bloeit), Andrea Dvorak (Forno d'Asolo Colavita), Gillow (Bizkaia Durango), Elisa Longo Borghini (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and Rachel Nylan (Diadora Pasta Zara).

The leaders cooperated until the sole mountain prime of the day, the Madonna Regina at the mid-point of the stage, where Scandolara added to her tally in the mountains classification ahead of Dvorak, Laws, Gillow and Verbeke.

Longo-Borghini, Nylan, Schwager, Slappendel and Blaak were dropped from the breakaway on the climb, leaving nine riders in front of the peloton containing the overnight race leader, Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit).

Kapusta attacked on the twisty descent to San Maurizio, pulling the lead group apart further: only Gillow and Laws could follow the Polish rider's wheel.

The trio spent the next 50km opening up the gap on the chasers, five of which were absorbed by the peloton before the finish. Kapusta's efforts ended up hurting her in the end, and when Gillow launched her race-winning attack, Laws left the Guass rider behind to take a narrow second place behind the 23-year-old Australian. Kapusta pulled up 10 seconds later, while the rest of the nine breakaway riders came in one-by-one.

Gillow now leads Laws on the general classification by four seconds, with Kapusta at 16 seconds. Vos dropped to 10th place on the day, more than three minutes in arrears. Defending champion Mara Abbott (Diadora Pasta Zara) is nearly four minutes behind, but with three huge climbing days coming on stages 7, 8 and 9, there is still plenty of opportunity for the climbers to make up ground.

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