Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) powered to her first victory in 2024 after stealing a march on the downhill run to the road in La Vall d’Uixó on stage 2 of the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.
The Swiss time trial specialist employed all of her energy on the flat and aerodynamic prowess to steer clear of the chasing group of favourites that she attacked with 5.9km left to race.
Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) simply received the dash behind, however, having missed Reusser’s transfer off the entrance of the main group, she was compelled to accept second for the second time in as many days.
Evita Muzic (Groupama-FDJ) was third.Yesterday’s stage winner Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) fell out of the race lead after being dropped inside the ultimate 30km on the penultimate climb.
Reusser heads into tomorrow’s queen stage with the orange chief’s jersey.
“I’m tremendous glad, actually grateful for the group to assist me. I hoped it will be a great day and we might do one thing good, me or another person from the group, and it was a very cool closing; I’m so glad,” mentioned Reusser after the end.
The way it unfolded
The 117km stage obtained underway from Borriol with Margot Vanpachtenbeke (VolkerWessels Ladies’s Professional Biking Crew) and Imogen Cotter (Hess Biking Crew) taking on the mantle of attacking within the opening phases.
The duo weren’t allowed a lot of a bonus with the peloton preserving it tight and reeling them in earlier than the climbs that characterised the stage’s closing 40 kilometres.
Because the peloton hit the Puerto de Ahín (14.5km at 2.6%), assaults have been launched from Clara Edmond (EF Schooling Cannondale) and FDJ-Suez, however no group can be allowed a lot pleasure as DSM-Firmenich PostNL got here to the fore on the head of the race.
The second categorised climb of the day, Puerto de Eslida (5.1km at 6.2%) was the place the motion kicked off correctly as Elise Chabbey (Canyon SRAM) was a type of to attempt to leap away.
Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) struggled and dropped off the again, however the Dutch group would have been delighted to nonetheless have Vos up there. It appears the icon of the game is again as much as kind after her arduous 12 months with a number of iliac artery surgical procedures and intervals of restoration.
With Balsamo dropped, Vos was the heavy favorite as the rest of the motion left to race solely included a descent to the end. The tempo was excessive, with Kasia Niewiadoma and Vos main the group down, however because the Canyon SRAM rider slowed up and took a glance behind, Reusser launched.
The Swiss champion put the hammer down because the chasers appeared to one another to tug her again, however nobody might or wished to match Reusser’s spike in energy. Her hole rapidly grew to 5, ten, then 20 seconds because the kilometres ticked by at a fast tempo on the downhill.
Reusser was in a position to have a good time solo for SD Worx Protime’s fifth win of the season with an eventual successful margin of 29 seconds on Vos and the remainder of the chasers. Reusser’s general lead heading into stage 3 is 27 seconds on the Dutchwoman.
She’ll must defend her orange jersey on a brutal 129km route from Alicante to Xorret de Catí with high pure climbers Niewiadoma, Muzic and Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) simply half a minute down on GC.
Outcomes
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