Spaniard sprints to top-ten finish in Luxembourg

Alicia -14th overall- leads Movistar Team after strong attacks in Garnich's circuit showdown by Neylan, Biannic. Paternoster (ASA) wins final stage, takes GC.

18-year-old Italian youngster Letizia Paternoster (ASA) took Sunday’s victory and overall honours after stage two of the Festival Elsy Jacobs (UCI 2.1), decided over a demanding circuit (111km) in Luxembourg’s Garnich, where the whole Movistar Team directed by Jorge Sanz again aspired to a good results against some of the best WWT squads.

Aude Biannic, Rachel Neylan and Alicia González coped with the pace changes until the final laps into a 40-woman group shrunk by a long slope (1.2km, 4%) just after the finish. While the Frenchwoman and the Aussie followed the moves and even went on the attack to break the pace into the group inside the last 5km, the Spaniard saved her energy for the sprint, where she was slightly boxed in at the twists and turns of the final kilometer and had to stay content with what’s still her first top-ten result out of Spain in 2018, 10th at the finish.

González in turn achieved a spot inside the overall top-20 -14th, with Biannic in 16th-, with Lourdes Oyarbide -who went after the attacks together with Alba Teruel and Gloria Rodríguez in the opening phase of the race- dropping back from the 12th place in the eve due to the continuous slopes of the decisive circuit.

Picture 2 (c): ACC Contern