17th May – Stage 2: Ugao-Miraballes – Igorre
The second day of racing in Itzulia followed a similar patter to the first one; explosive attacks over the climbs and a reduction of the peloton. Team Picnic PostNL were active in trying to make it into any dangerous breakaway, but the stage ultimately came down to a reduced peloton sprint. Like on the opening stage, after being well looked after by the team throughout the day, Eleonora Ciabocco was able to sprint to ninth place on the day.
After the stage Ciabocco said: “It was another really hard stage. The pace was already on from the first climb and it was really steep, but I managed to stay in the first group, and Becky was with me. On the second one we lost a little bit but we came back on the flat part to the front. Going to the next climb Becky did a good job of trying to get into the break but some teams were really controlling it for the sprint. Esmée came back to the group too and we just focused on trying to go for it there too. I tried to follow the other teams and position myself as best as I could. In the last 100 metres I had to brake a bit and lost a few positions, but it’s another top ten. Tomorrow is the last day so we’ll see what we can do there.”