OVO Energy Women’s Tour – Stage 2 Preview

Jun 14
cyclical

After Jolien D’Hoore’s sensational return from broken collarbone to the winner’s podium in stage 1, the riders face a route more akin to a European Classic on day 2 of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour.

 

Stage 1 review

Delight for Michelton-Scott as their hard work throughout the day to set up the sprint for Jolien D’Hoore was rewarded with victory and the leader’s jersey.

Boels-Dolmans took the two other major classification leads through Amy Pieters battling for the sprints jersey, and Christine Majerus bossing the Queen of the Mountains climb from bottom to top.

The whole stage hinted at the rising level of professionalism within the women’s peloton; the sprinters’ teams kept things almost completely under control, with virtually no movement off the front of the peloton, save for Susanne Andersen’s late attack for Hitec Products.

Michelton-Scott led through the closing kilometres, taking the final right-hand turn and launching D’Hoore on the rising 300-meter straight to the line.

Frustration was the over-riding emotion for the Wiggle-High5 team: after a late puncture for Lisa Brennauer, most of the team were then caught behind a sequence of crashes, dropping the German former winner to 87thoverall, some 38 seconds back.

Thankfully, all 102 riders finished the stage, even Abi Van Twisk from Trek-Drops who was knocked unconscious in a crash inside the final kilometer.

 

Stage 2 route

Like yesterday, hardly mountainous – there will be three classified climbs on the stage – but it is a jagged, up-down 144-kilometer course which will sap the energy. After leaving Rushden, there are two intermediate sprints inside the first 20 kilometers.

The climbs come later in the stage: the third-category Weedon Hill, a shallow rise at 94 kilometers, then the first passage of Newnham Hill at 107.5 kms as the riders face a finishing, anti-clockwise loop which gives them a look at the stage finish in Daventry. This second-category climb is faced again just two kilometres from the finish, the perfect lauch pad for a race-winning attack. Once over the top at 141.6 kilometers, it’s just over a mile of descending to the line.

Contenders

Maybe, this is just too much for the recovering D’Hoore to handle? If so, Michelton-Scott have a card to play in Gracie Elvin. Boels-Dolmans could unleash a number of riders such as Majerus and Pieters, while Marianne Vos was close on stage 1 for Waowdeals.

The cyclical.cc pick for the day, though, is Sunweb’s Coryn Rivera; a past winner of the Tour of Flanders, there is no reason to suggest she can’t survive the hills with her sprint undiminished.