Alé BTC Ljubljana team is honouring itself at the Giro Rosa, the International Women’s Giro d’Italia, which compares the best riders on the world cycling scene.
Today the first podium has also arrived thanks to a generous Eugenia Bujak who, after almost 80 kilometres of breakaway, finished second in the fourth stage of 170.3 km from Assisi to Tivoli. The winner was her adventure companion Elizabeth Banks of the Equipe Paule Ka, who managed to beat the Slovenian riders by 7 seconds on the steep final.
After the finish, Slovenian Eugenia Bujak said: “Today we wanted to enter in a breakaway and I tried it from the start. It was a very long day, there were several attempts but no luck. I decided to try again anyway. I had good feelings, I felt that it could be a good day for me and so I tried to do my best for my team. It wasn’t an easy day, very long and tiring on the breakaway. In the end, British Banks was stronger than me and won. I’m sorry because I wanted to give my team a win, but I hope to have other opportunities in the next few days or in next races this season”.
Behind the two, over a minute later, all the best came with Dutchman Annemiek Van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) who finished third and further strengthened her lead in the overall standings.
Spanish champion Mavi Garcia finished eighth and also occupies eighth position in the general classification.
Alé BTC Ljubljana sports director Fortunato Lacquaniti said: “Today we decided to enter a breakaway with Bujak or Guderzo. Eugenia did a great job. It went badly because we were hoping for a victory, but a second place in a stage of the Giro Rosa is still a great result. Mavi Garcia is doing well, she proved it in these days by always fighting with the best in the classification. We regret that today Anna Trevisi was forced to leave the race due to problems with a foot that was hurting her. She clenched her teeth as much as she could. We are happy for the work done by the girls. Even today they were all exceptional. We will try again in the next few days, there are still a couple of important stages and our focus remains to try to win one”.
(ph. Cor Vos)