OVO Energy Women's Tour: Rivera wins stage 2

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Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) won stage 2 of the OVO Energy Women's Tour in a photo finish against Marianne Vos (WaowDeals) as Newnham Hill couldn't prevent a sprint finish. Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans) rounded out the stage podium. Rivera is now also the leader of the general classification with three stages still to go.

Starting in Rushden and finishing in Daventry, stage 2 covered 143.9 km, mostly in Northamptonshire. The stage was a continuous up-and-down with three classified climbs as well as three intermediate sprints, two of which were held within the first 20 km. Newnham Hill just outside Daventry had to be climbed twice, cresting just 2.3 km from the finish the second time.

The peloton was kept together in the start as the sprinters eyed the bonus seconds on offer at the two intermediate sprints. Coryn Rivera won the first one, but was beaten by Danielle Rowe (WaowDeals) in the second. Just after the intermediate sprint, Maaike Boogaard (BTC City Ljubljana) got away, and the peloton seemed happy to let her sit at the front of the race on her own. 30 km into the race Boogaard's lead was 2:10 minutes.

In spite of strong winds, Boogaard increased her advantage even more in the first half of the stage until she led by a whole four minutes after 50 km. From there on, the peloton slowly but surely took back ground and eventually caught the lone escapee with 58 km to go, just seven kilometres from the first classified climb.

The race didn't split on the category 3 Weedon Hill, and Christine Majerus led the peloton over the top in her black mountain jersey. At the bottom of Newnham Hill (category 2) with 38 km to go, everything was still together, but the steep and narrow climb made the peloton break apart.

Four riders got a gap, and Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5) led Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Marianne Vos, and Rowe over the top to take the mountain points. This quartet stayed together on the descent to Daventry where Rowe won the third intermediate sprint at the first passage of the finish line with 34.1 km left to race.

A few kilometres later, the front group was caught by a group of 30 riders. Another group was about half a minute further behind, and these two groups merged with 28 km to go to form a big peloton. There were several attacks, but nobody managed to get off the front on the loop around Daventry.

And as nobody could get away on the second ascent of Newnham Hill either, the stage was decided in the sprint of a reduced peloton in the streets of Daventry. Vos went early on the finishing straight, but Rivera launched from the European champion's wheel on the final metres and threw her bike on the line, just pipping Vos for the win in a photo finish. Majerus finished third.

With her stage win, Rivera also takes over the green leader's jersey; the US rider now leads the race 15 seconds ahead of Rowe. The OVO Energy Women's Tour continues on Friday with a 150-kilometre stage from Atherstone to Royal Leamington Spa.

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