Ellen van Dijk wins stage 2 of Setmana Ciclista Valenciana

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Ellen van Dijk continued Trek-Segafredo’s winning start to the season after securing the stage 2 victory in a two-up sprint against Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana. Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) won the bunch sprint for third place in Cocentaina.

“Second win in a row for the team, it’s a bit of an unbelievable start to the season. We couldn’t wish for anymore really. The bar is set pretty high now, but we will enjoy this for as long as it lasts. For me, personally, it's also very good feeling to win so early in the season and actually, it’s really nice because I don’t win that many road races," said van Dijk, the current time trial world champion.

Paladin moved into the race lead by two seconds ahead of van Dijk and six seconds ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) as the race heads into stage 3 from Vila-Real to Vistabella del Maestrat on Saturday.

"It was a really hard but fun day," said Paladin. "We were on fire, especially Elise [Chabbey] and Kasia [Niewiadoma], and we came with numbers in the final part of the race. It was really nice to see how committed the team was and how we reacted after yesterday's stage. At the point when I went, we had good numbers so it could have been any one of us that got away."

The second day of racing offered the field 117km between Altea, where many of the WorldTeams hosted their early-season training camps, to Cocentaina. It was a lumpy stage but it only included category 1 ascent at Alto Confrides at 30km into the race. The rest of the stage is undulating with an intermediate sprint at Cocentaina (74km), followed by a second loop of a 29km regional circuit before finishing in Cocentaina.

Marta Cavalli (FDJ) picked up the full mountain points over the Alto Confrides ahead of Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ). Over the top, however, Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) opened a small gap and was later joined by Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo). The trio gained 10 seconds on the main peloton of about 60 riders that included stage 1 winner and overall leader Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo).

The trio were reeled back in as a new group of escapees slipped off the front, this time, with Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo), Juliette Labous (Team DSM), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Marie Le Net (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope). 

The quartet pushed their lead out to 47 seconds on the peloton and 1:50 on the next group of 20-some rider containing Balsamo, now well out of contention for the GC.

Niewiadoma took full points at the intermediate sprint in Cocentaina, before starting the final loop of the race. Without a sizeable lead on the field, there was a reshuffling of the lead group that saw Brodie Chapman (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) and Floortje Mackaij (Team DSM) join Niewiadoma with a slim lead.

It was all back together along the final circuit, however, and Longo Borghini launched an attack, once again, followed by Chabbey. The pair didn’t get far but counter attacks saw time trial world champion Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) and Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) gain 45 seconds on the field just 10km most from the finish line in Cocentaina.

In what was a two-up sprint to the line, van Dijk got the better of Paladin to take the stage win.