Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 2 Preview – Tips, Contenders, Profile

After the Stage 1 team time trial, Stage 2 of the 2020 Giro Rosa will provide a different test. A generally rolling uphill kind of day, the final climb is 5.8km at 6.5%. That should ensure that only the genuine GC contenders are left at the end. Those are similar numbers to the climb in La Course which whittled the peloton down into an elite group of Van Vleuten, Vos, Deignan, Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma and Vollering (the only one not racing the 2020 Giro Rosa). The summit of the climb comes just 12km before the finish, so we could see a rider attempt a long one.

Teams

• Mitchelton-Scott
• Ale BTC Ljubljana
• Aromitalia Vaiano
• Astana
• BePink
• Bizkaia Durango
• Boels-Dolmans
• Canyon SRAM
• CCC-Liv
• Ceratizit-WNT
• Cogeas-Mettler
• Cronos Casa Dorada
• Paule Ka
• Eurotarget-Bianchi-Vittoria
• FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
• Lotto Soudal Ladies
• Lviv Cycling
• Movistar
• Servetto-Piumate-Beltrami TSA
• Team Sunweb
• Top Girls Fassa Bortolo
• Trek-Segafredo
• Valcar

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 2 Profile

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 2 Favourites

Annemiek van Vleuten will always be a favourite. That last climb is probably long enough and tough enough for her to drop rivals. Although on Stage 2 with everyone having fresh legs, that might be a tough ask. She doesn’t seem to have quite the same form that saw her first 5 races of 2020 but she’ll have been aiming to peak for the Giro Rosa. The final climb certainly suits Anna van der Breggen, the overall 2015 and 2017 winner. She dominated the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana stage race at the start of the year. Her only road race win in 2020 was in the national championships but she’s been there or thereabouts with 4th in Strade Bianche and 2nd in the Emakumeen Saria.

Spanish rider Mavi Garcia is certainly in form. I had her as a nailed on favourite for the Tour de l’Ardeche where she finished 2nd after winning the first 2 stages of the race. Her solo effort at Strade Bianche announced her as a top rider in 2020. I expect her to be in or near the front group. Ashleigh Moolman started the post-lockdown period with 6th at Emakumeen Saria but then crashed whilst doing a recon before Strade Bianche. She needed 60 stitches and understandably hasn’t raced since. Normally she’d be a big favourite but she may have lost some form whilst recovering. Teammate Marianne Vos got over the climbs in La Course with the front group and was super close to getting the win in the sprint. The other favourites will be looking to drop her on the final climb so she’s not there to contest the stage.

Of the punchier climbers, Katarzyna Niewiadoma is in the best form after finishing 4th at La Course and 3rd in the European Championships a couple of days earlier. She should be up there at the end of the stage. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig should be a favourite but she seems to have gone backwards with her form recently. After losing time on the team time trial, she may be allowed to join attacks, but other days suit her more. She finished 7th in Strade Bianche and winning the Giro dell’Emilia, she was disappointing with only 30th and 16th racing in Plouay/Euros. However, she then missed out on the front group at La Course and finished 31st.

The Trek pairing of Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini should be up there at the end. They worked well together to allow Deignan the best chance of beating Marianne Vos in the sprint at the end of La Course. Deignan is in great recent form having won the GP de Plouay as well. That crash in the European Championship is the only bad point in recent races. She shouldn’t have any problem staying in the front group.
Can’t forget to mention the current race leader! So far in 2020 Elisa Longo Borghini has only finished outside of the top-10 when she’s fallen off. Part of the Trek team crash in the Giro dell’Emilia and she also got caught up in the European Championships crash. Surprisingly, she’s never won a Giro Rosa stage, despite being on home roads.

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 2 Outsiders

Erica Magnaldi was 5th on a similar sort of profile at Nafarroako Klasikoa after lockdown. She’s a bit more of an out and out climber, which means it’ll depend on how the final climb is raced whether or not it will suit her. She was 13th in Giro dell’Emilia on a punchy steep hill finish so favours a proper climb.

By contrast, Rasa Leleivyte would prefer a punchy style finish. Her standout results in 2020 have been in Italian races, 11th at Strade Bianche and a very impressive 2nd place in the Giro dell’Emilia. Again it depends on how the climb is raced but she may stay with a front group. Cogeas-Mettler’s young Russian Mariia Novolodskaia is in some sublime climbing form at the moment. She won the Grand Prix Mount Erciyes with a solo break of 4 minutes and the Grand Prix World’s Best High Altitude solo by over 1 minute too. Those races are both 1.2 level though, so it’ll be interesting to see how she fares against tougher opposition.

Stage Prediction

1st
Anna van der Breggen
2nd
Annemiek van Vleuten
3rd
Katarzyna Niewiadoma