Giro d’Italia Donne 2023 – Annemiek van Vleuten crushes rivals to take 100th win on Stage 2

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) landed a 100th professional victory at the Giro d’Italia Donne with an outstanding solo win on Stage 2 after attacking on the final climb and extending her lead all the way to the finish in Marradi.

Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) and Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Suez) were the closest to the world champion on the Passo della Colla, but struggled to close the gap on the descent off the climb and were caught by a larger group that slipped further away from the defending Giro champion up the road.

That chasing group was led home by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ–Suez) who pipped Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich) in the sprint behind, 45 seconds down on Van Vleuten. Time bonuses mean Van Vleuten leads the general classification by 49″ from the Dane and puts her 51″ ahead of the French climber.

This solo victory marked the incredible century of wins for the Dutch legend of the sport and her 14th at the Giro Donne. This is the last appearance for the 40-year-old at the Giro and she is already looking set to win the second Grand Tour of the year after winning La Vuelta in May.

As the live pictures rolled in, an early breakaway of two had formed at the front in Irene Mendez (Bizkaia Durango) and newly-crowned Norwegian national road race champion Susanne Andersen (Uno-X).

Their advantage was over the three-minute mark as two hopeful chasers set out to try and bridge the gap to the leaders. Beatrice Pozzobon (Mendelspeck) and Giorgia Bariana (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) were only able to dangle a minute in front of the peloton, two minutes behind the leaders, before being re-absorbed.

The break would take the bonus seconds at the only intermediate sprint into Borgo San Lorenzo with Eugenie Duval (FDJ-Suez) mopping up the only remaining point.

At this point, there was 10km until the foot of the uncategorised climb that would decide the day’s racing, so rouleurs came to the front of the peloton across the road to ensure their climbers and leaders were safely in position.

Elynor Backstedt (Lidl-Trek) and Franziska Kock (dsm-firmenich) upped the pace which immediately cut the breakaway’s lead to 2’11”, then quickly to 1’43” as the climb approached.

The next few kilometres were met with another downpour of rain, which after Friday’s terrible conditions would have been greatly resented, however pictures at the finish in Marradi showed sunny conditions at the line.

With the rain and weather worsening, the live images dropped out as the climb started, meaning it was not too clear who was where. Until we had the – in hindsight, obvious – report that Van Vleuten had launched an initial attack.

Van Vleuten revealed in her post-race interview that she had seen the other teams just riding tempo on the climb and decided to attack when the gradient averaged 7%, to which there was no response and she was suddenly solo.

The world champion crested the climb alone and took the full eight QOM points and the jersey, with Cavalli and Realini the only two riders able to stay within half a minute of her. She just had 16.7km of descending left to take her 100th professional victory.

Realini, one of the young stars of the sport, struggled in the corners perhaps due to her smaller frame and lower weight, so was forced to pedal back onto Cavalli’s back wheel multiple times out of the faster corners.

The duo got as close as 28 seconds before Van Vleuten moved away and they were caught by a big chasing group that contained many of the other favourites for the overall.

Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) worked on the front for Realini but was unable to dent the lead, and despite her rallying the FDJ-Suez team to help in the pursuit, Van Vleuten was well clear by now and closing in on the maglia rosa.

Van Vleuten crossed the line arms aloft solo and looking back to her very best in her final season before retirement. She had to wait 45 seconds to see the damage she had done as Uttrup Ludwig won the small bunch sprint behind with Labous coming across the line for third.

She now takes a 49-second lead over Utrrup Ludwig into the third stage which runs 118.2km from Formigine to Modena. It is a much easier parcours, with only one categorised climb again, but that uphill test is a Cat .3 climb and crests with over 60km left to ride.

It should be a proper chance for the sprinters and a good chance for us to see Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) and Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) in full flight in a sprint. Vos, outside of probably being the greatest women’s rider ever, also has the most Giro stage wins in history – an incredible 32.

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