The summit finish on stage two was tipped as one of the most decisive stages of this year’s Giro d’Italia Donne with a thirteen kilometre climb to the ski resort at Prato Nevoso. The first riders crossed the line in ones and twos behind stage winner Anna van der Breggen (SDW) who finished with more than one minute advantage and is the new leader in the overall.
Elise Chabbey was part of a breakaway in the final thirty kilometres but the forty second gap was reeled in before the final climb started. Elise and teammate Alena Amialiusik crossed the line just over five minutes behind the winner. Mikayla Harvey finished the race disappointed after losing fifteen places on the general classification (GC).
“I am done with my GC ambitions. I lost too much time today to be in contention and I think it’s an unrealistic goal. We need to switch focus to someone else or to use our opportunities to go for a stage result,” said Mikayla on returning to the team hotel.
“I am disappointed in my performance today. I felt empty and had nothing in my legs. It is upsetting because the team really worked hard for me and I wasn’t able to deliver. I won’t let one bad race day get me down though. The beauty about stage racing is that there are multiple opportunities. Me and my teammates still have eight more chances to deliver a nice result. So we will be even more motivated in the next days!”
With Mikayla dropping down the general classification, Alena is our best placed rider in the overall in fifteenth place, just under six minutes behind the leader van der Breggen.
Tomorrow’s stage three from Casale Monferrato to Ovada starts at 12:05CEST. The 135km stage has 1500m of elevation and can be followed live from 15:15EST on: GCN+, Eurosport Player, PMGSport YouTube, PMGsport Facebook, TuttoBici, Claro, SBS, NOS, Spark Sport, RaiSport, EBU, SABC Sport and BBC.