Brennauer and Hosking share glory in Madrid

September 15 ^th 2019 - 16:27

Chloe Hosking (Ale Cipollini) out-sprinted her rivals in front of the famous Cibeles Square after 98.6km of intense racing to win stage 2 of the Ceratizit Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta. The race was hard fought from the start and the battle kept going all the way to the finish with seven intermediate sprints and as many opportunities for the GC contenders to overthrow Lisa Brennauer (WNT Rotor Pro Cycling Team) after her victory in stage 1. But the powerful German answered all her rivals attempts to win the penultimate event in the 2019 UCI Women’s World Tour ahead of Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb).

The peloton rolls out on the Paseo del Prado in the early afternoon and immediately tackles the famous 5.8km circuit around some of Madrid’s most prestigious venues. It’s non stop attacks from the start, with the Spanish champion Lourdes Oyarbide (Movistar Team) eager to display aggressive public in front of her public, but some of the strongest teams are determined to keep the bunch together in order to make the most of the seven intermediate sprints with time bonuses of 5, 2 and 1 seconds for the top three riders on the line.

On the day after her win in the individual time trial set in Boadilla del Monte, the race leader Lisa Brennauer (WNT Rotor) quickly puts her raw power to use and wins the first intermediate sprint after two laps ahead of Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb), who wears the green jersey as the GC runner up. Brand wins the fourth intermediate sprint halfway through the race (km 46.4) and only trails by 3” on the virtual standings.

Attacks keep flying as it starts pouring for the final part of the race, but nobody manages to stay at the front for very long. It comes down to a bunch sprint dominated by Chloe Hosking (Ale Cippollini) ahead of Letizia Paternoster (Trek-Segafredo) and Roxane Fournier (Movistar Team Women). Lisa Brennauer safely finishes in the bunch to claim the overall victory.