Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) repeated her success from stage 1 of Itzulia Women, winning stage 2 from a group of three that formed in the finale of the stage. Mavi García (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) finished second while Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) took third.
Bredewold and García bridged across to Labous who had attacked with 12km to go, and as Labous and García worked hard to maximise their GC time gain, Bredewold could sit on their wheels.
Labous led the trio onto the uphill finish in Basauri where García took the lead 300 metres from the line, but Bredewold jumped from the Spanish champion's wheel in the last 150 metres to take the stage and continue her team's 100% record with eight stage wins out of eight possible in the Basque race.
“This is really unexpected and crazy. They say, once you’re in a good flow, you’re in, and I guess that’s true. I really did not expect this today. The team was so good and super attentive, and we all make each other calm because we’re always there. Blanka [Vas] and Marie [Schreiber] did amazing work,” said Bredewold who thanked her teammates after the finish.
“I could not hold on with the best riders, but that’s actually what I expected before. It was still so long to the finish, so everything came back. We tried to attack, Juliette went first, and later, I could jump. The cooperation was really good, and they are really strong climbers, so I knew that I had to be careful, so I gambled a bit,” she said, referring to the Urruztigaina climb where she lost contact with the best before coming back and attacking in the final.
“The gap was really small in the end, we have to discuss it. Again, I want to race openly, and if the other girls see a chance, it’s nice for them to do something. I am feeling really good, that’s nice."
Bredewold leads the GC with 14 seconds advantage to Labous and 15 seconds to García.
How it unfolded
The 104-kilometre stage around Basauri was changed before the start as the unclassified climbs in the final were removed, shortening the stage to 101km.
Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) won the first two mountain sprints to defend her lead in the mountain classification. She will wear the polka-dot jersey on stage 3 but will have to work hard to take it home as the final stage includes the first-category Jaizkibel, third-category Gurutze, and second-category Mendizorrotz climbs.
Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime) set a hard pace on the Urruztigaina climb, and Vollering made her move 400 metres from the top to crest the climb solo, 36km from the finish.
Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) came up to Vollering with 33km to go, and when Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) joined them a little bit later, it was a front group of three. They were only ten seconds ahead of a chase group with Labous, García, Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM), and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), though, and the five chasers bridged with 27.6km to go.
However, the cooperation in the new front group of eight wasn’t great, and 16km from the line, a reduced peloton had closed the gap after having been almost a minute behind. Immediately, Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) went on the attack, but the Movistar Team did let neither her nor Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT) go.
Labous then used a short uphill ramp to jump away with 12km to go, and García tried to bridge to her, eventually succeeding together with Bredewold. The three frontrunners built a gap of up to 21 seconds, and Bredewold played her cards best to win the stage one second ahead of García and Labous, four seconds ahead of Olivia Baril (Movistar Team), Vollering, and Chabbey, and nine seconds ahead of the rest of the reduced peloton.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
