Emakumeen Bira: Van Vleuten wins stage 2 time trial

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Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) put her mark on the stage 2 individual time trial at the Emakumeen Bira. The time trial world champion gained time on the rest of the field and took over the race lead. Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) was 14 seconds slower in second place, Lisa Brennauer (Wiggle High5) finished third 44 seconds slower.

The 26.6-kilometre course was not completely flat; it featured two short climbs on the first half. On the second half, crosswinds on the open, exposed road could play a role. Mieke Kröger (Team Virtu Cycling) was the fifth rider to start and set the first benchmark when she finished in a time of 35 minutes and 32 seconds. Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo Bigla) could not reach this, finishing in 35:50 minutes.

In 18:45 minutes, Hayley Simmonds (WNT Rotor) was 15 seconds slower than Lepistö at the time check halfway through the course. But at the finish she beat the times of both the Finn and Kröger, taking the lead with 35:28 minutes. Simmonds stayed in the hotseat for some time until New Zealand's ITT champion Georgia Williams (Mitchelton-Scott) finished, setting a time of 35:10 minutes.

Olga Zabelinskaya (Cogeas-Mettler) and Karol-Ann Canuel (Boels Dolmans) were both two seconds faster than Williams at the time check, but were slower on the second half of the course and failed to beat the New Zealander's time at the finish.

Now it was time for the favourites to start. Van Vleuten set a phenomenal split time of 17:34 minutes halfway through the course. Last year's overall winner Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo Bigla) was not far behind at the with 17:58 minutes, van der Breggen beat van Vleuten's split time by nine seconds.

Former time trial world champion Lisa Brennauer passed the time check after 17:53 minutes. Yesterday's stage winner Sabrina Stultiens (WaowDeals) was the last rider on the course. Her split time of 19:03 minutes confirmed that time trials aren't her speciality; Stultiens would eventually finish in 36:57 minutes and lose the race lead.

Van Vleuten was the fastest in the second half of the course and finished in exactly 34 minutes, cutting 1:10 minutes off the previous best time. Van der Breggen fell short of this time, finishing in 34:14 minutes for second place. Moolman-Pasio set a time of 34:53 minutes; this eventually put her in fourth place as Brennauer finished nine seconds faster.

"It was really nice to win in the world champion's jersey for my team in a European race," van Vleuten said after the finish. "Now we will take it day by day. I don't have a massive advantage on Anna, but she will have to attack me."

With two difficult, hilly stages to come, van Vleuten has a 14-second lead over van der Breggen. Moolman-Pasio in fourth place is 52 seconds behind; the South African now has her work cut out for her if she wants to defend last year's overall win.

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