The breakaway surprised the big teams in stage 1b of the Vuelta a Extremadura as Greta Marturano (UAE Team ADQ) sprinted to the win in Mérida, just ahead of break companion Sigrid Haugset (Coop-Repsol).
Marturano and Haugset had been away for just over 40km after attacking over the day’s sole categorised climb, and quickly built a gap of two minutes, holding on by just a few seconds to contest the win.
The peloton had closed down most of the gap in the final 10km, but couldn’t quite make the catch and were left to sprint for third, with Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek) and Carys Lloyd (Movistar) crossing the line together, both avoiding a crash in the final straight. Copponi was briefly awarded third place but after review of the photo finish, Lloyd was ultimately named as third place finisher.
Lidl-Trek had been working to protect the interests of race leader Ellen van Dijk, who won the stage 1a time trial, and though they didn’t close the gap, Marturano started the stage 50 seconds down on GC and Van Dijk finished in the bunch meaning she will hold on to the yellow leader’s jersey going into stage 2 on Friday.
This is 26-year-old Marturano’s first win as a professional, after moving to UAE Team ADQ from Fenix-Deceuninck over the winter.
“After the morning time trial, our strategy was to support the team leaders. My goal was to go for the KOM, and I found myself in a breakaway with another rider. We worked well together, pushed hard, and at some point, I realized we had a real chance to make it to the finish. From there, we gave everything. I’m really happy with this victory," Marturano said.
With two stages remaining, Van Dijk leads Mie Bjørndal (Uno-X Mobility) by 10 seconds while Marturano moved up to third, 19 seconds down.
“We were chasing, but we got a little bit different messages on the time gap, so we actually thought we were closer, but in the end we heard all of a sudden that we were not so close, so we had to go full gas,” Van Dijk said.
“We came too late in the end. Other teams were helping so that was good, but the chase was not fast enough because we thought we were closer, but the riders in the breakaway also had a really strong ride, so chapeau to them.”
Coming after the morning’s 9km time trial, stage 1b comprised a 90km point-to-point route with just one categorised climb but plenty of rolling roads in Extremadura to make things difficult.
The stage started with a very compact peloton and it took a long time for any attacks to start forming, and those that did try were closed down very quickly by Lidl-Trek and Uno-X Mobility, looking to protect the GC positions of Van Dijk, Mie Bjørndal and Katrine Aalerud.
Over the top of the category 3 climb with around 40km to go, Greta Marturano and Sigrid Haugset attacked and became the day’s breakaway, building up a gap of over two minutes, leaving the peloton quite a lot of work to do before the finale.
Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike were leading the chase, but with 10km to go the gap was still 1:18 with Marturano and Haugset working well together. In the final 5km their advantage started falling more rapidly, and it hung in the balance whether the catch would be made, but ultimately the peloton gave the strong escapees too much leeway, and the pair were able to race for the win.
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