Giro d'Italia Women 2024: Consonni defeats Kopecky in the sprint on stage 2

As expected, the 2nd stage of the Giro d'Italia Women 2024 ended with a bunch sprint after 110 kilometres between Sirmione on Lake Garda and Volta Mantovana. Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) had the fastest legs there, narrowly beating Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx - Protime). Behind the world champion, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) took third place. Her team-mate Elisa Longo Borghini defended the pink jersey, which she had secured in the opening time trial.

Giro d'Italia Women 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 2

1. Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) 2:41:58
2. Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx - Protime) +0:00
3. Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
4. Arlenis Sierra (Movistar Team) +0:00
5. Mylene de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team) +0:00
6. Kimberley (Le Court) Pienaar (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) +0:00
7. Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health) +0:00
8. Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Cannondale) +0:00
9. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
10. Kathrin Schweinberger (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team) +0:00

The current standings in the overall standings

1. Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) 3:02:35
2. Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) +0:01
3. Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek) +0:13
4. Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx - Protime) +0:19
5. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:29
6. Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) +0:30
7. Cedrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team) +0:38
8. Loes Adegeest (FDJ-Suez) +0:38
9. Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) +0:45
10. Franziska Koch (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:47

>> The route: All stages of the women's Giro d'Italia at a glance

How the 2nd stage of the 2024 Giro d'Italia for women went

After the start, two riders broke away from the peloton: Ana Vitoria Magalhaes (Bepink-Bongioanni) and Alessia Missiaggia (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo). After a slight delay, two chasers from the Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria team set off: Beatrice Rossato and Valeria Curnis. While the leading duo pulled out a lead of over six minutes on the peloton, the chasing duo was caught between a tree and a bark for a long time, around three minutes behind. The two chasers were then caught by the peloton with 30 kilometres to go.

This was followed by a counter-attack by a trio from the peloton: Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance - Soudal Team), Alessia Vigilia (FDJ-Suez) and Dominika Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) tried their luck. But Lidl-Trek increased the pace in the peloton and brought the three riders back.

Meanwhile, Magalhaes had broken away at the front on the first of the two ascents of the Carviana climb (4th category) and continued her ride alone. With around 20 kilometres to go, the Brazilian rider went into the final lap around the finish town of Volta Mantovana with a lead of around 3:30 minutes on the peloton and it slowly became clear that it would be tight for the peloton if they wanted to catch the Brazilian. After all, there was no coordinated chase up to this point.

Marta Jakulska (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team), a single rider, tried to close the gap in the meantime, but was unsuccessful. It wasn't until a good ten kilometres before the finish that the peloton was on the move again. Lidl-Trek and Team SD Worx - Protime tried to close the gap of 2:30 minutes to the front runner and they succeeded.

The women around world champion Lotte Kopecky in particular pushed hard and caught up with Magalhaes two kilometres before the finish. It came down to a bunch sprint. It was opened early by Kopecky, too early, as Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) broke away from her slipstream on the slightly uphill finishing straight and won by a narrow margin ahead of the Belgian.