Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s former two-time World champion Giorgia Bronzini won the second stage of the Giro d’Italia Femminile – the Giro Rosa – in the town of Pontecagnano Faiano on Italy’s Tyrrhenian coast in a flat out sprint. The 29-year-old Italian managed to outpace current World champion Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) on the line at the end of the 99.6km stage, made up of four laps of a 24.9km circuit. Bronzini’s compatriot Barbara Guarischi (Vaiano-Fondriest) was third.
Having helped out her teammate in the run to the finish, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Emily Collins still managed to take fifth place on the stage.
“I felt good in the climb, really good, so I told the girls that I wanted to have a go at the sprint,” said Bronzini afterwards. “In the last lap there were some attacks from the Pasta Zara team, and I asked the girls to go onto the front and pull the group to chase the break. I chose to stay in Vos’ wheel, when she had a train into the finale; my teammates were working so hard to chase the break, that I said ‘you chase the break and I’ll stay in the other train.’
“When I was in Vos’ wheel Charlotte Becker and Rochelle Gilmore were next to me, just in case something happened to me,” she added, “but I was in the train of Vos – it was perfect on Vos’ wheel – and I went in the last 50 metres.”
With the confidence gained in last week’s hilly Italian championship course, Bronzini was keen to show that she is more than just a sprinter, and put in a fierce attack on the second ascent of the circuit’s main climb.
“I did that one time to check my legs, and also to surprise the others, because they didn’t understand!” she laughed.
“I felt really good, but in that kind of finish the best rider is Vos, that’s why I only came out in the last 50 metres, because we had a headwind. We finished so close together, but in the end I won, so it’s good!”
The victory is Bronzini’s fifth in the Women’s Giro d’Italia – previously known as the Giro Donne – but her first since she took the opening stage of the 2007 edition.
“I’ve waited for this moment for many years,” she smiled. “I think it’s because I feel so good in this team. I’m so proud of my teammates, and they give me a lot of energy for the final sprint.”
1. Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
2. Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv/Giant)
3. Barbara Guarischi (Vaiano-Fondriest)
5. Emily Collins (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
Please take a few minutes to watch this short film of the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling team at the Giro d’Italia!
