Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-Scott) time trialled to victory in Sante'elpidio a Mare on Tuesday putting an astounding 41-seconds into second place, race leader Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans). The Giro Rosa stage 5 winner suffered a 2:42 time loss on Monday's stage 4, and her win on Tuesday will undoubtedly offer a sense of vindication and opportunity.
"We had a really good preparation for this time trial," said Van Vleuten in her team's race report. "That was really good for my confidence going into this stage. Of course, you also need good legs, but I have been feeling really good throughout the Giro, and I showed that today.
"I was super disappointed yesterday, but I managed to stay focused, and I know today was a chance to take some time back."
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In typical Giro Rosa fashion, the profile for the 12.73 kilometre time trial appeared gentle. In reality the stage included enough elevation gain that riders opted to contest the effort on their road bikes. The route included the short but leg-breaking Muro di Cocciari where gradient tops out at 30 percent.
"We had some laughs about the profile in the book," Van der Breggen told Cyclingnews. "This extreme TT looked like it was almost flat in the profile. To be honest, I think it was a bit too much. The girls who aren't going for the general classification or a good TT result had no option to save themselves."
Monika Kiraly (S.C Michela Fanini Rox) was quickest in the first half of the race. The Hungarian stopped the clock at 28:31. Stage three winner Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) was the first to break the 28-minute barrier, setting a new standard of 27:42 for those that followed.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/2unv55i
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