Marianne Vos wins 6th stage and retains overall lead in 2011 Giro D’ ltalia Internazionale Femminile
Nederland Bloeit team’s Marianne Vos again showed her brilliant performance and won the sixth stage of 2011 Giro D’ltalia Internazionale Femminile on Wednesday, July 6.
The race started in Fontanellato and ended in Piacenza. The 24-year-old Dutch cyclo-cross cyclist took a total of 3 hours, 14 minutes and 7 seconds to cover the distance of 128 kilometres.
Recently, Marianne took the first place in Ronde van Drenthe and also won the Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs. She has also won the Dutch National Cyclo-Cross Championships.
Giorgia Bronzini of the Colavita Forno d'Asolo team was the runner-up. Ina Teutenberg of HTC-Highroad Women finished in the third spot, ahead of Sara Mustonen.
After finishing the stage, Brozini said, "Today I was hoping to win, because the stage ended in my city, I like a very technical finish, it suits my characteristics, in order to get my first win at the Giro. But Marianne Vos is the strongest right now.”
The two cyclists, Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto Honda Team) and Lucy Martin (Garmin – Cervelo), did not take part in the race due to injuries.
With 45 kilometres to go, Liesbet De Vocht (Topsport Vlaanderen 2012-Ridley) was the first rider who escaped from the peloton alone. The Belgian maintained her pace and build a lead of 45 seconds over the peloton.
De Vocht was later joined by two riders, Valentina Bastianelli (Vaiano-Tepso-Solaristech) and Esra Tromp (Netherlands). With 30 kilometres to go, all of them build an advantage of two minutes and 30 seconds, while the peloton decided to attack in order to
reduce the trio's gap.
Nederland Bloeit’s Director, Jeroen Blijlevens said, "With three mountain stages and an individual time trial ahead it will not be easy. Marianne has never finished a major stage race on the podium, so that would be a good end in itself."
Marianne also took the overall lead with a timing of 16 hours, 3 minutes and 46 seconds and Sylwia Kapusta (Gauss) was the runner-up with 24 seconds behind Marianne.
Garmin - Cervelo team’s Emma Pooley finished third with a difference of 52 seconds, while Shara Gillow was in the fourth place.
The next stage will start in Rovato and end in Grosotto. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 122 kilometres.
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