Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) sprinted to victory in stage 2 of the Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina, beating race chief Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) and Imogen Wolff (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a diminished dash in Valdefuentes.
Only a small group of round 15 riders contested the ultimate of the 109km stage after a climb within the closing 5km break up the peloton aside in Spain.
Starting the day in second general, bonus seconds imply Ottestad will transfer nearer to the race lead, however Van Dijk will maintain onto the jersey going into the third and closing stage on Saturday.
Ottestad’s teammate Katrine Aalerud helped arrange the victory, attacking with 9km and forcing Lidl-Trek into the chase to deliver issues again along with 3km to go and permit the Norwegian champion to dash for the victory.
“It was a busy stage with crosswinds and within the bunch, it was fairly irritating at first,” Ottestad mentioned on the end.
“We had the climb and we needed to be on all day, however I feel the crew did a very nice job. One of my teammates was within the entrance within the final kilometres so I might simply keep behind and chill after which go for the dash.”
Thanks to a tailwind, it was a quick begin to the 109km stage, which prevented any breakaways from getting away within the first half of the stage so the peloton remained compact for many of the day.
Going into the second half of the stage, the WorldTour groups started to push the tempo within the wind, quickly whittling down the bunch even on the flat and placing many riders in bother earlier than the ultimate climb started.
The 5.4km Alto de Robledo shrunk the peloton even additional, and excessive, there have been solely round 20 riders within the entrance group, together with race chief Van Dijk.
After the descent, Aalerud launched a transfer on a small ramp 9km from the end, however being a menace to the chief’s jersey she was introduced again by Lidl-Trek and the race regrouped with 3km to go and opened up for a dash in Valdefuentes.
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