DOUBLE TOP 5 ON STAGE 2 IN VUELTA A BURGOS

In a muddled, drawn-out dash to the line on stage two of Vuelta a Burgos, Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka finished just ahead of a late-charging Chiara Consonni, the duo rounding out the top five amongst a competitive sprint field.

Agnieszka improved on the pair of top-five placings she achieved on similar terrain at last year’s Vuelta a Burgos, while the result also marked her third fourth place in a WorldTour event since then. The Polish rider continues to knock on the door of a debut podium at the highest level:

“Fourth place always hurts a little because the podium is really close, but I think we rode a very solid race as a team and there are a lot of positives that we can take from today.”

It was a day that offered a great opportunity to continue the momentum from an encouraging opening stage, which saw a committed five-rider squad deliver a strong lead-out, paving the way for Chiara to sprint to second.

While yesterday’s finishing straight was flat and fast, stage two’s gently undulating 121km route featured a subtle 3-5% drag in the final kilometre – enough to potentially blunt the explosive edge of the pure sprinters. Despite that, the team fully backed their Italian speedster, as Agnieszka explains:

“The plan was for Chiara, but in the final she got blocked in the middle. I was trying to shout to her to come over to my left side, because my radio wasn’t working, which made communication really difficult. In that situation, we had to improvise quickly in the finale.”

The final 10km were lively and messy, with Zoe Bäckstedt infiltrating a dangerous move before, once it was brought back, switching her focus to kickstarting the lead-out for Chiara. As Agnieszka recognised, the Chiara found herself slightly boxed in as the bunch surged under the flamme rouge, while Agnieszka had a clearer run on the left-hand side of the peloton.

With 500m remaining, Maike van der Duin surged up the right-hand side of Chiara and, together, they steadily picked through a tightly packed group hugging that edge of the road. On the opposite side, Agnieszka produced multiple surges to move up through clearer space, eventually latching onto the wheels of podium finishers Wollaston (TFS) and Balsamo (LTK).

Another bunch sprint finish is far from guaranteed on tomorrow’s third stage, as the peloton tackles a more demanding 126km route featuring three category three climbs. The second and final ascent of the Alto de Bocos (3km at 6.2%) crests with 14km remaining, setting up a potentially more aggressive and open finale. The action gets underway at 12:30 CET, with live coverage beginning from 14:30 on TNT Sports, Eurosport, HBO Max, FloBikes and RTVE.