Vuelta a Andalucia Women: Dronova makes it two wins in a row on stage 2 in Cómpeta

Tamara Dronova-Balabolina (Israel-Premier Tech-Roland) won her second consecutive stage at the Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia Ruta Del Sol on Thursday, distancing herself from the reduced field on the final ascent to win solo in Cómpeta. 

The Russian all-rounder finished seven seconds ahead of runner-up Katrine Aalerud (Movistar) and third-placed Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Norway).

Dronova-Balabolina extended her lead in the overall classification to 32 seconds ahead of Aalerud and 34 seconds ahead of Debora Silvestri (Laboral Kutxa- Fundación Euskadi) heading into stage 3 on Friday.

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How it unfolded

The second stage at Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia Ruta Del Sol was a 95km hilly race from Salobreña to Cómpeta. The peloton tackled an opening ascent, Puerto de Itarbo, that was 8km at 4.9%, but the final 3.8km was nearly 6% steep. 

A decent was followed by an intermediate sprint in Almuñecar and then undulating terrain into the final climb of the day, which was 5.9km at 5.2% to the summit finish at Competa.

After winning the opening stage into La Zubia, Dronova-Balabolina started the second day in the overall race lead.

The peloton stayed together over the first ascent, where Jessenia Meneses (Colombia-Pacto por El Deporte) took the full mountain points over the top ahead of Lourdes Oyarbide (Movistar) and Elizabeth Stannard (Israel-Premier Tech-Roland).

Down onto the rolling valley roads, Alicia Gonzalez (Movistar) collected the intermediate sprint points on offer in Almunecar.

As the terrain became more challenging inside the final 30km of the stage, nine riders escaped from the field that included Mareille Meijering (Movistar), Alice Sharpe (Israel-Premier Tech-Roland), Antri Christoforou (Human Powered Health), Emma Dyrhovden (Norway), Anastasia Carbonari (UAE Development), Lija Laizane (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Catalina Anais Soto (Bizkaia Durango), Isabel Martin (Eneicat-CMT), and Georgia Whitehouse (Skip Capital).

At 12km to go, and ahead of the final ascent, the breakaway split apart with Meijering, Sharpe, Christoforou and Dyrhovden distancing the others.

The quartet held a slim lead on the reduced peloton of about 25 riders but were soon caught, which led the way for Dronova-Balabolina to push the pace on the climb. She distanced herself from the selection on the final ascent and took her second stage win in as many days.

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