Giro Rosa Round-up: more Boels-Dolmans success as Evelyn Stevens wins stage 2 and takes pink

Today’s break of the day was for Mia Radotic (BTC City Ljubljana) and Anna Trevisi (Ale Cipollini), who stayed away until 50 kilometers into the stage. It was thrilling to read that Trixi Worrack (Canyon-SRAM) then launched a solo attack at 75 kilometers, even though it wasn’t long-lived.

A small group, with all the favourites in it, rode away from the peloton inside the last 15 kilometers. They started the final climb to Montenars together.

Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans) reached the finish line first and won the third Giro Rosa stage in her career. Because teammate and pink jersey wearer Megan Guarnier arrived at the finish line 24 seconds behind, Stevens also took over the pink jersey from Guarnier.

Boels-Dolmans, Wiggle-High5 and Rabo-Liv fill the top 5 of today’s stage and as expected, these three teams will battle for the GC in the stages to come – with Claudia Lichtenberg (Lotto-Soudal) an outside favourite, as she doesn’t have an equally strong team to support her.

2016 Giro Rosa stage 2
1. Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans)
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5)
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Rabo-Liv)
4. Mara Abbott (Wiggle-High5)
5. Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans)

Check out the full results on the CyclingTips results page.

Videos

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The jersey wearers after stage 2

Pink jersey/GC
1. Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans)
2. Kasia Niewiadoma (Rabo-Liv) + 0:02
3. Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) + o:18
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-High5) + 0:23
5. Claudia Lichtenberg (Lotto-Soudal) + 0:35
6. Mara Abbott (Wiggle-High5) + 0:36

White youngster jersey
Kasia Niewiadoma (Rabo-Liv)

Green mountain jersey
Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans)

Purple spint jersey
Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans)

Blue best Italian rider jersey
Elisa Longo-Borghini (Wiggle-High5)

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Photos

What’s in store for the riders in stage 3

On paper, this looks like a relatively flat stage, but it is definitely not. Italian races are known for their misleading course profiles. There’s always much more and much tougher climbing than what you expect from consulting the technical guide.

The peloton will therefore take on more altitude meters than on the only categorized climb in this stage, a category-III-climb to Arqua Petrarca.

As the final kilometers of the stage do seem to be quite flat, we’re most likely looking toward a bunch sprint tomorrow, which offers some chances for the sprinters in the Giro Rosa peloton.

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Who is your favourite to win stage 3 in the 2016 Giro Rosa?