Vuelta a Burgos Féminas: Matilde Vitillo wins stage 2 in photo finish

Matilde Vitillo (Bepink) narrowly beat Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health) to win stage 2 of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas.

After a tense closing kilometre, the day’s early breakaway survived to the finish in Aguilar de Campoo but it came down to a matter of centimetres to decide the winner, with the victory going to the Italian after almost 90km out front.

Also read: Vuelta a Burgos Féminas: Kopecky powers to victory on stage 1

With the seven-rider break finishing six seconds ahead of the chasing peloton, Colombia’s Jennifer Ducuara (Colombia Tierra de Atletas) takes the race lead from Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx).

“We went in the breakaway after 40km and it was so hard,” Vitillo said at the finish.

“We were only seven – better than yesterday, when we were only three, so it was good. I was with my teammate [Nora Jenčušová], she helped me so much. In the sprint I gave all that I had and it went so good. I didn’t expect that, it was crazy.

“It’s a surprise, it’s definitely a surprise. I tried to go in a breakaway and show myself on TV, but I didn’t expect this, for sure.”

How it happened

Stage 2 of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas rolled out from Sasamón on Friday morning with 128km of undulating roads facing the peloton on the way to Aguilar de Campoo. With only two category three climbs to contend with and a flat finish, the stage looked on paper like another potential sprint stage after Kopecky’s win on stage 1.

Three riders were missing from the start line in Sasamón: Clairse Steels (Sopela) and Elisabet Escursell (Bepink) did not finish stage one, and Lija Laizane (Eneicat-RBH Global) pulled out ahead of the stage 2 start. 

When the flag dropped, Mieke Kröger (Human Powered Health) and mountains classification leader Lara Vieceli (Ceratizit-WNT) broke away in the first few kilometres, but couldn’t establish a gap of more than ten seconds and were reeled back in after only seven kilometres of racing. The breakaway attempts didn’t let up after Kröger and Vieceli were caught, but no one could get away in what was a much faster start to the stage than on Thursday. 

The main news in the first 25km of racing was that Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope) had abandoned after being involved in a crash. The Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne winner finished safely in the bunch on stage 1 and had been among the favourites for the weekend’s climbing stages. Her team confirmed she had been taken to hospital for checks. 

At the 35km completed mark, a more substantial group of riders eventually managed to break clear: Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health), Matilde Vitillo, Nora Jenčušová (Bepink), Jennifer Ducuara (Colombia Tierra de Atletas), Aranza Villalón (Eneicat-RBH Global), Maaike Coljé (Massi Tactic) and Vieceli forged ahead in the run in to the first categorised climb of the day. Clearly keen to chase as many mountains points as possible, Vieceli was once again on the attack. Of the seven leaders, only one, Jennifer Ducuara, was on the same general classification time as stage one winner Kopecky, with everyone else 2 minutes or more behind. 

Happy for the leaders to be the break of the day, the peloton slowed slightly and the gap grew to almost three minutes. Natalia Franco (WCC Team) and Catalina Soto (Bizkaia Durango) took advantage of the slight lull to attempt to bridge to the break, followed by moves from Jeanne Korevaar (Liv Racing Xstra) and Andrea Ramírez (Massi Tactic) but with the gap growing to over five minutes, it was a tough ask. Franco and Soto got to within 3 minutes of the leaders, but Korevaar and Ramirez couldn’t get further than the no man’s land between the peloton and the chasers.

On the first categorised climb of the day, the Alto de Amaya, it was Nina Buijsman who took the maximum six points, with mountains jersey wearer Vieceli taking four to add to her lead in the classification. 

Heading into the final 50km of racing, the leaders’ advantage was seven minutes over the peloton with Franco and Soto still stuck between the two groups as the race took on the uncategorised by tough climbs of the Burgos region. Going into the 40km-to-go mark, SD Worx and Canyon-SRAM upped the pace on the front of the bunch and the gap to the seven leaders began to slowly come down. Further down in the peloton, a touch of wheels saw Grace Brown (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope) and Selam Amha (WCC Team) on the ground, but both were quickly back riding. 

Coming to the top of the category three Alto de Humada, Nina Buijsman again showed her intent and swept up the maximum mountains points, but Vieceli was close in second over the line and will keep hold of the jersey going into stage three, with a total of 14 points to Buijsman’s 12. 

As the peloton crested the climb and Canyon-SRAM forced a high pace on the descent, several riders found themselves out the back of the bunch, including Urška Žigart (BikeExchange-Jayco) who had to chase back on after a small crash. The injection of pace saw the gap shrink to 4 minutes as the peloton caught the chasing pair of Soto and Franco, but once the roads flattened out and crosswinds affected the peloton, the gap stabilised again.

With still 3 minutes 45 seconds of an advantage going into the final 20km of the stage, the race looked to be going in the favour of the breakaway, but by the 10km to go mark the lead had been cut to 1 minute 36 seconds and it looked like the chase would go right down to the wire. On the lumpy run in to the finish, some attacks from the GC contenders disrupted the organised chase, but the pace was still higher in the peloton than in seven-rider leading group with the gap dipping below a minute in the final 5km – but it wasn’t coming down quickly.

It was a nail-biting finish as the breakaway went under the flamme rouge with a slender 20 seconds advantage but they narrowly managed to hold off the break going into the final metres of the race. Bepink’s Matilde Vitillo opened up her sprint first, but Nina Buijsman was coming up fast from behind, with the two crossing the separated by only a matter of centimetres. Despite Buijsman’s effort, the photo finish went the way of the Italian rider with Matilde Vitillo claiming her first victory as a professional. Vieceli rounded out the podium in third.

The breakaway finished six seconds ahead of the charging peloton, meaning Jennifer Ducuara now leads the general classification over yesterday’s stage winner Lotte Kopecky. Kopecky won the sprint for 8th, securing enough to hold onto her lead in the points classification. The mountains classification and young rider jerseys are retained by Lara Vieceli and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) respectively. 

After two flat finishes, stage 3 brings the first uphill finale of the 2022 Vuelta a Burgos, with two category three climbs in the last 30km of the 113km stage.