Ladies Tour of Norway: Markus solos to victory on stage 2

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Riejanne Markus (Team Jumbo-Visma) has won stage 2 of the Ladies Tour of Norway, taking the first Women's WorldTour victory of her career. After bridging to a breakaway of two riders in the last third of the stage, the 26-year-old Dutchwoman went solo with 23 kilometres to go and held off the peloton by a few metres on the slightly uphill finishing straight.

Coryn Rivera (Team DSM) finished second, Alison Jackson (Liv Racing) crossed the line in third place. At first, the peloton was given the same time as Markus, and stage 1 winner Kristen Faulkner (Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley) received the leader’s jersey at the podium ceremony on stage placing countback. However, the result was adjusted later in the evening, giving Markus a two-second time gap at the finish and thus putting her in the leader’s jersey.

"This victory means a lot to me. It's my first win on the WorldTour, and I don't get many opportunities. I have been waiting for a win for a couple of years now, so I am really happy that I could finish it off like this," said an emotional Markus after the race.

"We tried to make it a hard race today. We made a move with the team; I am really thankful to the girls for that. I found a moment to attack, and it was not easy to bridge the one-minute gap, but I made it and got some support. In the finish, I've been caught 20 metres before the line before, so I was really scared to celebrate too early. I was just trying to close my eyes and make it to the finish line," Markus explained the Team Jumbo-Visma tactics after the Dutch outfit had lost Anna Henderson who did not start due to injuries from a crash on stage 1.

How it unfolded

At 145.2 km, the stage from Askim to Mysen was the longest of the four-day race, taking a circuitous route through the interior of Østfold. The peloton pushed a high pace on the first 50 kilometres and let none of the numerous breakaway attempts go. Eventually, Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo), not hindered by her crash in the final of stage 1, and Aude Biannic (Movistar Team) were successful in forming a two-rider break and extended their advantage to a maximum of 1:50 minutes.

The peloton reduced this to just over a minute with 50 km to go when Team Jumbo-Visma then forced the pace up even further, dropping a group of fourteen riders and setting up Markus' attack. Markus bridged to Biannic and Cordon-Ragot within seven kilometres, reaching the front of the race 40 km from the finish.

There were several counterattacks in the peloton, but they were all quickly shut down, and Team DSM, Valcar-Travel & Service, and Liv Racing controlled the chase, reducing the gap to the front to 13 seconds with 24 kilometres to go.

Markus took this as her cue to leave Cordon-Ragot and Biannic behind, and the peloton seemed happy to leave a single rider up ahead, allowing Markus to extend her advantage to over a minute again as she entered the finishing circuit. It started to drizzle at this point, but the race escaped the heavy rain that started falling during the podium ceremony.

Crossing the finish line with 8.2 km to go, Markus was still 55 seconds ahead, and although Team DSM committed the whole team to the chase, breaking up the peloton into several groups in the process, Markus still held a 20-second advantage at the kilometre mark.

On the uphill finishing straight, the peloton came charging from behind, but Markus made it to the line a few metres ahead of the sprinters and, after being given a two-second gap, claims the GC leader's jersey. Faulkner keeps the lead in the points classification going into stage 3.

Nina Buysman (Parkhotel Valkenburg) defended her mountain jersey, her teammate Mischa Bredewold took the U23 jersey from Team SD Worx' Anna Shackley.