There aren’t many sprint finish opportunities at the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women, but the second stage came down to the bunch and it was Italy’s Chiara Consonni who dashed to victory ahead of Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek). The win is Consonni’s third stage victory at the Giro.
Pink jersey wearer Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) finished ninth and retained her lead over FDJ-Suez’s Grace Brown in the general classification.
Stage 2 Top 10
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How it happened
- A two-woman breakaway went with 102 km to go: Ana Vitória Magalhães of Bepink-Bongioanni and Alessia Missiaggia (Top Girls Fassa Bartolo) spent the majority of the day out front, but as the race entered the final circuit only Magalhães remained out front. Her gap as she crossed the finish line for the first time was decent, 3:40 to go with 21 km to go, and interestingly the teams behind weren’t in any hurry to chase.
- It wasn’t until the final 10 km that SD Worx-Protime finally moved to the front, but at that point, Magalhães still had a two-minute advantage on the peloton. Lidl-Trek, the team of the race leader, was not interested in spending much time in the wind until the gap dropped below 1:20.
- As soon as the Dutch team hit the front Magalhães’s gap plummeted. She was caught just inside 2 km to go.
- Ceratizit-WNT led the group to the finish, aiming to repeat their success at the Thüringen Ladies Tour, but it was Kopecky who opened up the sprint. Consonni was perfectly positioned on the wheel of the world champion and was able to come around her before the line.
Brief analysis
- There was a funny mix-up with the Youth Classification after the first stage. The jersey was awarded to Visma-Lease a Bike’s Lieke Nooijen, who got to go up on the stage to receive it, but soon after the organization realized they had miscalculated and it was actually Canyon-SRAM’s Antonia Niedermaier who finished 13th, 48 seconds down, who was the “best young rider.”
- The team that did most of the chasing when it came to crunch time was SD Worx-Protime, not Lidl-Trek, but there was a calculation here. Lotte Kopecky was a favourite for the stage, so the Dutch team had a reason to chase. But for the American team, it was better to leave Magalhães up the road. With only a one-second advantage on Grace Brown, Lidl-Trek would have been happy to see the lone leader take maximum bonus seconds on the line.
- The lack of control from Lidl-Trek means the American team will start the third stage, a stage that will test Longo Borghini’s lead, with fresher legs than some of their competitors.
GC Top 10
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Quote of the Day
When you read this quote throw on your best, thick Italian accent.
I was super focused on my sprint because I know I have not a lot of opportunities but really I play as well as possible.
Consonni after her victory
What’s next?
Stage 3: Sabbioneta to Toano (113 km)
Date: Tuesday, July 9
Stage type: Mountaintop
Summary: Flat, flat, flat, CLIMB!
Already on the third stage, we have our first “mountaintop” finish, although the climb itself is quite gradual so it likely won’t see too many of the GC favourites distanced before the line, and there is 3 km of relatively flat after the summit of the climb which favours a small bunch sprint of the favourites.
The whole run into the base of the climb is dead flat. The road starts to slant upward 84 km into the 113 km-long stage. It’s also not going to be like the Vuelta; there is no wind on the menu in the early stages of this race.
There will be plenty of time for teams to set up for their GC riders, but the climb itself starts with 12 km to go. From there it’s almost nine km of climbing, with an average of 5.4% and a maximum of 12.5% grades. With 3 km to go the road levels out, but briefly before kicking again to the line. A really strong climber like Demi Vollering might be able to drop the rest on a climb like this, but with Vollering sitting out the Giro to focus on the Olympics and Tour, it’s more likely a small group can stay together on the climb and the fastest among them will sprint to victory *cough* Elisa Longo Borghini *cough*.
This could be a double-race kind of day, with a breakaway of riders who lost time on the first two stages fighting for a stage win and a fight for the GC behind. There’s enough flat road before the climb that if a group gets a decent gap and starts the climb with an advantage they may be able to hold off the fastest GC women. The climb is also not necessarily steep enough for the chase to naturally reel in the attackers. But it is more likely the race comes down to the favourites, as the first climbing test for those hoping to win pink.
Originally published in the stage-by-stage preview that can be found here.
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