Van Vleuten takes control in Emakumeen Bira after time trial victory
(Cyclingnews.com)

Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) lived up to her status as pre-stage favourite, winning the stage 2 individual time trial at the Emakumeen Bira in the world champion`s jersey and putting time into the rest of the field on the 26.6km course. Nine seconds slower than Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) at the intermediate time check, Van Vleuten gave it her all on the second half and won the test with a time 14 seconds faster than her rival. `I wanted to go as hard as possible to gain as much time as possible, just do an optimal time trial. I did a warm-up on stage 1 with a solo in the finale,` Van Vleuten joked.ADVERTISEMENT `I put everything out there that I have at the moment. I know I can be slightly better, but it gives me a lot of confidence already to have this level. And winning in the world champion`s jersey is special. I did it already in Australia; that was a really short one. It was really nice to win in the world champion`s jersey for my team in a European race.` Van der Breggen looked strongest on the steep climb to Atagoiti on stage 1, where only Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo Bigla) was able to stay with the UCI Women`s WorldTour leader over the top. Van Vleuten followed a few seconds down but caught up on the descent. The stage 2 winner acknowledged that Van der Breggen may be stronger on the climbs. `Now we will take it day-by-day. I got the better of my competitors today in the time trial and I have a very strong team behind me. Anna showed that she is really strong on the climbs, so we`ll see. I don`t have a massive advantage, but she will have to attack me. I think it will be a very interesting race.` You can read more at Cyclingnews.com