Only in her second year of racing in Europe, Ana Vitória 'Tota' Magalhães (BePink-Bongioanni) is making a name for herself as a breakaway artist. The Brazilian rider attacked on the final stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas in May, and now she went on a breakaway of more than 100km on stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia Women, riding solo for 30km and only being caught with 1.8km to go.
“I’m probably going to think about the last two kilometres tonight when I go to sleep, but I’m proud of how I raced. It’s my style of racing to attack, and someday, I will win. I’m just going to keep believing and keep showing up, and someday, the breakaway will win,” Magalhães told Cyclingnews after the race.
At first, the 23-year-old Brazilian time trial champion only targeted the mountain classification jersey. But as the gap to the peloton increased more and more, maxing out at 6:28 minutes, she began to dream of winning the stage.
“I was thinking about the mountain jersey. But when the time gap increased, I started believing that maybe the stage also would be possible. Unfortunately, it was 1.8km longer than I could sustain,” said Magalhães.
Having attacked with Alessia Missiaggia (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) after only seven kilometres into the 110km stage, the duo together for a long time to keep the breakaway going. Magalhães dropped her companion on the first of two ascents to Cavriani on the final circuit.
“We were on the same flow, on the same base, more or less. She helped a lot, and I think she also believed that maybe we could win the stage,” Magalhães was happy with her companion.
On the finishing circuit, however, the first ascent of the climb to Cavriana spelled the end of their cooperation as the Italian could not keep up with the Brazilian, who looked around but then decided to keep going on her own.
“I didn’t expect to drop her on the climb. I was doing my own pace because I wanted to take the QOM points. On the top of the climb, I was thinking about whether to wait for her or not, but then I was like, ‘it’s now or never’, so I just kept pushing,” Magalhães explained her decision.
Although she could not get the big prize and win the stage, which was taken by Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ), the 23-year-old Brazilian went to the podium to collect the blue mountain jersey – only the second Brazilian rider to wear the Giro Women’s mountain jersey after Flávia Oliveira. Magalhães, who rolled across the line in 87th position, acknowledged that keeping the jersey on her shoulders was going to be difficult as stage 3 only features the third-category finishing climb.
“Of course I’m going to try to defend it, but I know it’s going to be pretty hard. We will see, there are a lot of strong climbers, stronger than me, but I’m going to try my best,” she said.
Proving herself in one of the biggest races on the women’s calendar was something that Magalhães hoped could open the door for others by showing what is possible in cycling.
“I hope it inspires others, not only Brazilians, to believe in yourself and show up. Today wasn’t the outcome that I was hoping for, but someday it will be, and it’s all going to be worth it,” said Magalhães.
“We are such a big country with a lot of talent. I know that we are a football country, but it’s such a big country that it can be also cycling country. I hope that this QOM jersey can inspire the future generation to believe in yourself, to pursue your dreams, and I hope that there will be more Brazilians here racing in Europe,” Magalhães finished.
