Cuban Arlenis Sierra secured today the third place in the massive sprint that solved the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia Women’s 2024, to realize the best performance of her Movistar team so far in this race of the world’s elite road cycling.
Arlenis was only beaten by Belgian 2023 world champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) and Italian Chiara Consonni (UAE-ADQ), all three with the same time of 2:38.54 hours in the 108 kilometers from Frontone to the town of Foligno, mostly on terrain favorable to the fastest riders.
The same time was given to the main peloton of 125 riders out of the 147 who took the start, although Kopecky now appears in second place for her 10-second bonus thanks to the victory and came within three seconds of Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), leader of the general classification since the first stage.
The rider from Manzanillo gained four seconds and moved up a step to 43rd place, but the most outstanding thing is that she takes every opportunity when there is no succession of big mountains in her way and has the ability to stay in the lead to sprint with confidence and power among the top cyclists in the world. This was the case in the second stage when she came close to the podium by placing fourth.
Although her mastery is of respected level, the support of her teammates also ensures the possibility of a good finish, as happened on Thursday when the work was very efficient and punctual help of German Liane Lippert in the final stretch.
On the day, in which the heat prevailed, there were several breakaway attempts after the first kilometers of a quiet peloton rolling from side to side of the road, but none achieved its goal. The full peloton practically made it to the final segment, with four more Italians included in the top ten.
However, shortly before the finish line, the world title holder’s teammates prepared the conditions and Kopecky progressively separated herself from her closest rivals to cross the finish line in front and celebrate her 11th victory this season.
Meanwhile, after the effort in support of Arlenis, the German Lippert crossed in 29th place, the Serbian Jelena Eric in 34th, the British Claire Steels in 40th and the Dutch Mareille Meijering in 45th. Movistar maintained the sixth place among the 22 teams in competition.
With the sixth stage to be run this Friday over 155 kilometers, the mountainous days return, starting in San Benedetto del Tronto and finishing in Chieti, where they should arrive after half past two in the afternoon.
Ups and downs will persist as the race moves from one valley to the next for about ten tough climbs and as many dangerous descents, with hardly any flat terrain, so the finish is uphill.
Source: By: Lisset Isabel Ricardo Torres, Jit Weekly.