Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) won stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia Women, beating Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) on a slightly uphill finish in Volta Mantovana.
The stage was dominated by a breakaway by Ana Vitória “Tota” Magalhães (BePink-Bongioanni) who went away with Alessia Missiaggia (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) only seven kilometres into the 110km stage. Magalhães dropped her companion on the first of two ascents to Cavriani on the final circuit and held off the peloton for a long time, only being caught in the penultimate kilometre.
A last-minute attack by Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) was reeled in with 500 metres to go. Kopecky launched her sprint off the wheel of Mylène de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT) and quickly took the lead, but Consonni jumped from the World Champion’s wheel and came around on the last metres to win.
Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) keeps the maglia rosa for the overall leader after finishing the second stage safely in the bunch.
“I have no words, really. The breakaway went for six minutes, and we were a little bit scared, but the team was super, they did a really, really good job. We knew that the final was hard, I saw the crashes the first time we passed the finish line. I really was super focused on my sprint because I know that I don’t have a lot of opportunities [at this Giro], but really, I did as well as possible, I think,” Consonni said after a career-third Giro stage victory.
Looking ahead to Tuesday’s stage 3 and the first summit finish, the stage winner joked that the race should cancel the stage: “Rest day! No, I hope for the team, because we went here with a strong team, and I hope that this is only the first one.”