Lara Gillespie takes second Grand Tour career podium at Giro

Lara Gillespie, right, takes 3rd on the opening stage of Giro d'Italia, behind Dutch champion Lorena Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo; the Irish rider's second Grand Tour podium finish of her career (Photo: Marco Alpozzi)

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) has today made her debut at Giro d'Italia, starting strong to claim the second Grand Tour stage podium of her career.

Though nobody could match stage winner Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime), former world champion Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) was just behind in 2nd place, followed by Gillespie in 3rd.

The Irish woman adds her 3rd place finish today to her 3rd on stage 4 of the Tour de France last year and a best stage finish of 4th at last year's Vuelta.

Gillespie's team today took up a notably strong presence on the front of the peloton in the final of the 139km race into Ravenna, clearly investing their resources in her.

However, as the field passed through the 5km to go marker, the pressure for space around the front of the peloton became more intense.

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Lidl Trek and SD Worx-Protime perhaps won the battle for position at that point of the stage, setting up Wiebes and Balsamo.

However, though Wiebes had a really strongly lead-out, it appeared to run out of riders for the final kilometre, leaving the last lead-out woman on the front for the longest time.

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And though Wiebes kicked earlier than she would have wanted, she immediately opened a gap on the others, as she usually does, and had the legs to keep her effort going all the way to the line.

Balsamo and Gillespie did not closely challenge her for the victory, but the Italian and Irish riders were clearly 2nd and 3rd; much faster than the other sprinters in the field.

Those sprinters should get another shot at victory tomorrow, when the riders tackle a flat stage of 156km from Roncade to Caorle.

More to come.

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