Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour: Baker wins stage 2

Georgia Baker continued BikeExchange-Jayco's success at the Lotto Thüringen Tour, taking out the bunch sprint on stage 2 in Gera.

Baker, had initially planned to lead out teammate Ruby Roseman-Gannon but instead it was another quick change of approach for the squad as they capitalised on a chaotic run-in, with the line soon after the final corner. 

Baker had opened up the sprint early and lead through with such force that she came around the final left hander at the front and held off a late charge from Maria Confalonieri (Ceratizit-WNT), with Femke Markus (Parkhotel Valkenburg) in third.

Stage 1 winner and overall leader Alex Manly (BikeExchange-Jayco) came across the line in seventh to hold onto the yellow jersey with a lead of six seconds on Markus, who gathered four bonus seconds with her podium placing.

“Our main goal was to keep Alex in the yellow jersey, so a stage win is a bonus," said Baker after securing her first UCI win on the road. "To be honest, that wasn’t our plan for me to win today, it just worked out like that. So I am really happy!”

The hilly circuit around Gera saw two different breakaways, with Katharina Fox (Team Maxx Solar) hitting out in the first ten kilometres and riding about a minute ahead of the peloton for 48 kilometres before being worn down by the climbs and the persistent pursuit from the peloton.

After she was caught, a counter-attack went with Agua Marina Espinola (Canyon-SRAM) and Julie Van de Velde (Plantur Pura) getting away before the second QOM.

They too were brought back and the peloton was all together with 17km to go. BikeExchange took control and delivered Baker to victory, the team's second in two days and also the second of this season. Teammate Roseman-Gannon came across the line in fourth, also holding fourth place on the overall classification behind Confalonieri.

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