MADRID, 2 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Dutch cyclist Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) won the second stage of La Vuelta Femenina 2023 on Tuesday, played between Orihuela and Pilar de la Horadada over 105.8 kilometers, in a long sprint in which she beat the ‘living legend’ Marianne You (Jumbo-Visma), who will be the new leader of the race.
Despite the fact that the American Chloe Dygert (Canyon/SRAM Racing) attacked inside the last kilometer and gained a few meters of advantage, both Charlotte Kool and her compatriot Marianne Vos sprinted to the end to pass her and play the victory, the first in line of this Vuelta, in a one-on-one.
If the stage had been 10 meters less, the victory would have gone to Marianne Vos, who nevertheless took the prize of being the new leader of the general classification and giving prestige, given her brilliant track record, to the reformulated La Vuelta Femenina, and to a ‘Big’ also from the women’s calendar.
The stage was nevertheless for a Kool who believed in his legs more than anyone else and who overtook Vos in the last few metres, through the center of the road and on a false flat finish, with a slight slope. It is the seventh victory for this young 23-year-old cyclist, in a finish in which Alba Teruel (Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi) was sixth.
To achieve it, his team and others had to fight to end the leaks, in a stage that started out flat but, from its equator, moved to more leg-breaking terrain, with the Port of San Miguel de Salinas ( 4th) in between, just 20 kilometers from the finish line.
There were attacks, but none came to fruition. And, already in the descent towards the Alicante town of Pilar de la Horadada, the teams of the sprinters no longer allowed any more attacks. Now overall, Marianne Vos has a 1 second lead over Dygert, 2 over Riejanne Markus and 6 over her teammate and former leader Anna Henderson.
–CLASSIFICATIONS.
-Stage.
1. Charlotte Kool (NED/Team DSM) 2:41:27.
2. Marianne Vos (NED/Team Jumbo-Visma) m.t.
3. Chloe Dygert (USA/Canyon/SRAM Racing) m.t.
4. Blanka Vas (HUN/Team SD Worx) mt
5. Rachele Barbieri (ITA/Liv Racing TeqFind) mt
…//…
6. ALBA TERUEL (ESP/Laboral Kutxa Euskadi Foundation) mt
-General.
1. Marianne Vos (NED/Team Jumbo-Visma) 2:59:24.
2. Chloe Dygert (USA/Canyon/SRAM Racing) a 1.
3. Riejanne Markus (NED/Team Jumbo-Visma) 2.
4. Anna Henderson (GBR/Team Jumbo-Visma) 6.
5. Amber Kraak (NED/Team Jumbo-Visma) mt