Giro Rosa (st. 2)

Jasinska, García and Movistar Team's climbers stay into main bunch, reeling back Arzuffi (BDM) and Gutiérrez (CPC) with 500m from 'arrivo' in Ovada. Kirsten Wild (WHT) wins as Lucinda Brand (SUN) takes over pink.

The Movistar Team was able to complete the first road stage of the 2018 Giro Rosa safely, hot conditions striking the 120km course around Ovada -halfway between Genova and Milan in the Piamonte region-, a mix of two circuits with lumpy roads followed by a rolling finale.

A two-woman breakaway with Alice Maria Arzuffi (BDM) and Sheyla Gutiérrez (CPC), which ammassed a gap exceeding three minutes over the peloton including then-leader Ellen Van Dijk (SUN), came just under a kilometer short from reaching the finish ahead. The sprinters’ teams measured their efforts perfectly, with Kirsten Wild (WHT) led out towards victory into a first group including six Movistar Team riders, Malgorzata Jasinska and Mavi García within those.

The Polish champion, who scored a 1″ bonus at the first intermediate sprint of the day, stays 1’13” behind the new maglia rosa, Lucinda Brand (SUN). There’s still two flat stages remaining -Sunday’s circuit race in Corbetta and Monday’s stage four in Piacenza- before the Italian Grand Tour heads towards its decisive mountains.