Tour de l'Avenir Femmes: Zanetti wins sprint on stage 2
Niedermaier continues as race leader
Linda Zanetti (Switzerland) won the sprint on the second stage of the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes, emerging from the bunch on the final bend and carving out such a solid gap that she could start her celebration before the line.
Zanetti topped Julie De Wilde of Belgium and Fem van Empel (Netherlands) in the bunch sprint on the 91.8km stage from Charolles to Louhans Chateaurenaud.
“Today was quite an easy stage because there weren’t many attacks and we raced all together with my team always in the front. They did a really good job for me and I could finish with the win in the sprint,” said Zanetti in a post stage interview.
Antonia Niedermaier (Germany) continues as the race leader as she, second-placed Anna Shackley (Great Britain) and Shirin van Anrooij (Netherlands) all finished in the bunch on the same time.
The debut edition of the five-day U23 women's race continues on Wednesday with a lumpy 97km stage from Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne to Val d'Epy with 1,223m of altitude gain and the category 2 climb of Côte du Thoissia topping out around 14km from the finish line.
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Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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