Giro d'Italia Donne: Annemiek van Vleuten storms to stage 2 win

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) made her mark on the first road stage of the 2023 Giro d’Italia Donne, going solo over the final climb to take the maglia rosa and the 100th victory of her illustrious career.

Behind her, an elite group of overall contenders worked together in an attempt to limit the world champion’s advantage, with Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) and Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich) coming home second and third, respectively, to take six and four bonus seconds, 45 seconds down on the winner.

The day’s breakaway saw a valiant attempt by Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling) and Irene Mendez (Bizkaia Durango) to try and surprise the favourites, but the pair were caught on the day’s only climb as the race favourites engaged in battle

It was on the Passo della Colla that Van Vleuten put in the first major attack of this year’s race, with the world champion appearing to have a gap upwards of 40 seconds on the descent to the finish in Marradi. Coming over the line 45 seconds ahead of the 10-woman chasing group, Van Vleuten pulled on the first maglia rosa of the Giro Donne.

“First of all, I think it’s my hundredth UCI victory, so it’s really special to win this one,” Van Vleuten said at the finish. “Especially in my favourite country to race - together with Spain. In the Giro, my favourite race, wow, it is unbelievable.”

“I didn’t know how my legs were, because I went to altitude and usually Livigno for me is where the magic happens, I recharge myself and I usually come back really strong. But I didn’t test myself, so today was the first test and I think Livigno did its work again.”

How it happened

Setting out from Bagno a Ripoli, the peloton will have been grateful to see improved weather from yesterday’s downpour which forced the cancellation of stage 1. With no stage winner or GC times taken from the curtailed opening time trial, there was no maglia rosa to begin stage 2 and the riders knew that the winner of the stage would take the race lead.

With just one category 2 climb defining the day, the teams without GC contenders were able to contend for the breakaway without much trouble at the beginning of the stage.

Bepink were particularly active in trying to send a rider up the road and Noemi Eremita (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria) engaged in a futile solo attack early on, but the eventual breakaway consisted of Norwegian champion, Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling) and Irene Mendez (Bizkaia Durango).

A fruitless chase by Giorgia Bariani (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and Beatrice Pozzobon (Team Mendelspeck) came to an end with 37.3km to ride, at which point Andersen and Mendez retained a 3:11 lead over the peloton. With the pace hotting up in the group behind, however, this gap was reduced to 43 seconds at the bottom of the Passo della Colla (16.2km at 4.4%) and with only 16.7km remaining from the summit to the finish, a GC battle was to be expected.

Photo: © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Van Vleuten will be hoping to add a fourth Giro Donne title to her palmarès by the end of the week

The climb itself would not disappoint, but poor weather conditions forced the loss of live coverage for the majority of the ascent and for the best explanation of what unfolded, we are best turning to the stage winner, Van Vleuten.

“I had two sections where I could attack… but other teams were riding a solid tempo so I waited a bit and did not use the first opportunity,” explained the Dutchwoman. “But when we approached the second part of 7%, I felt the desire to go and I was immediately alone. That surprised me a bit, especially with such strong riders here.”

With the return of live coverage came our first insight into how those chasing Van Vleuten’s solo attack had fared on the climb. Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ) and Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) had come across the summit together. The pair initially mounted a chase of Van Vleuten on the descent, but were soon swallowed up by the collection of riders who had regrouped behind.

Holding a 42 second advantage with 3km to ride, Van Vleuten desperately attempted to further her lead over the chasing group that, alongside Realini and Cavalli, consisted of Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich), Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind), Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ), Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ), Ana Santesteban (Jayco AlUla) and Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ).

After coming into the race with possibly the strongest team, it was the Lidl-Trek duo of Realini and Longo Borghini who contributed the most to the chase, but Van Vleuten’s lead reached 45 seconds by the finish line and Realini, along with Muzic, lost a further four seconds as they tailed off the chasing group in the last few hundred metres.

Uttrup Ludwig won the sprint for second ahead of Labous, with Van Vleuten solidifying her status as the race favourite by taking the first maglia rosa of this year’s Giro.

Annemiek van Vleuten now leads the Giro Donne by 49 seconds over Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, 51 seconds over Juliette Labous and 55 seconds over a host of riders that includes last year’s podium finishers, Marta Cavalli and Mavi García. Unsurprisingly, Van Vleuten also leads the points and QoM classifications, whilst Gaia Realini leads Fem van Empel (Jumbo-Visma) by 35 seconds in the youth classification.

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all nine stages of this year’s Giro d’Italia from Friday, June 30 to Sunday, July 9. Head over to GCN+ now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.