Setmana Ciclista Valenciana: Sandra Alonso wins stage 2

Sandra Alonso (Bizkaia Durango) sprinted to victory at stage 2 of Setmana Ciclista Valenciana. The Spanish rider won the reduced group sprint ahead of her compatriot Sheyla Gutiérrez (Movistar) and Arianna Fidanza (Team BikeExchange) in Vila-Real.

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) finished in the bunch and maintained her overall race lead heading into the third stage on Saturday. She leads the race by 2:10 over Mavi Garcia (Ale BTC Ljubljana) and by 2:27 over her teammate Katrine Aalerud. 

How it unfolded

The second stage offered the field a 130km race between Castellon and Vila-Real. It was also another day of climbing with two main ascents: Alto Coronetes (62km), a 7.8km climb at 5 per cent average but with a max of 10 per cent, followed by Alto Salt del Cavall (71.6km), a 5.4km climb that only averaged 3.3 per cent but with sections as steep as 12 per cent. 

The stage ended with an undulating final 40 kilometres to the finish line in Vila-Real.

An early breakaway emerged with Tatiana Guderzo (Ale BTC Ljubljana), Olivia Baril (Massi-Tactic), Katrine Aalerud and Paula Patiño (Movistar), Ane Santesteban (Team BikeExchange) and Omer Shapira (Canyon-SRAM), who gained a minute on the main field. But the front group reshuffled and then it all came back together with 110km to go.

Rally Cycling’s Krista Doebel-Hickok, who started the day 16th in the overall classification at 3:12 behind Van Vleuten, attacked just after the intermediate sprint at La Barona (103km to go) and created a small gap that bloomed to over three minutes.

Movistar led the front of the main field behind on the approach to the first ascent at Alto Coronetes, where Doebel-Hickok pushed her lead out to four minutes.

Behind the solo breakaway rider, the main field split into two groups separated by about 30 seconds, and with overall race leader Van Vleuten safely in the first chase group after the second and last ascent, Alto Salt del Cavall.

Movistar committed to the chase and slowly reeled in Doebel-Hickok, ending her solo breakaway with just five kilometres to the finish line. The Spanish outfit set up Gutiérrez for the finish, but it was Alonso who crossed the line first in the reduced bunch sprint.