Megan Armitage (Arkéa Pro Cycling Team) is now in a great position for a general classification result at Vuelta Extremadura Féminas (2.2) after making the grade today following her team's TTT win on stage 1 yesterday.
The Irish woman went into today's 122km stage 2 from Don Benito to Cáceres, which featured climbing, effectively equal first overall following the TTT result. And when the road kicked up today with about 55km to go, it was Armitage to the fore again.
She not only proved one of the best riders sprinting for the climbers' classification points but also broke clear on the main climb. Armitage then spent a chunk of the hardest part of the race in a small breakaway.
When the main field was splitting to pieces with just under 55km to go, it was Armitage on the front with one of her team mates setting the pace and doing the damage as large numbers of riders were being spat out the back.
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The front group was down to about 15 riders by the time it reached the climbers' prime on the first serious climb, with Armitage sprinting off the front about 250m from the crest of the climb. That injection of pace saw Armitage pull clear with her team mate Clara Emond and Maëva Squiban (Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime).
Emond took maximum points at the top, followed by Squiban and Armitage. They had a gap of about five seconds on the rest of the select group and quickly decided to press on as a trio. However, while Armitage and Emond were committed to the task, Squiban was more reluctant and she soon went back to the chasing group.
For the next 10km, Armitage and Emond persisted, getting a maximum of gap of between 20-30 seconds. However, several riders in the chasing group were working and with the race on long straight roads, the conditions were against the two breakaway women.
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Armitage and team mate Emond were caught with about 40km remaining on the stage, though they had put in a performance suggesting they are among the strongest in the race. And while the 16-rider lead group they were in began to work, the level of cooperation was limited.
That allowed a number of chasing groups - comprised of riders dropped on the cat 2 climb when Armitage went clear - being allowed to come back into contention. Those chasers formed a group of just over 30 riders, including Ireland's Fiona Mangan (Soltec Team). That chasing group spent most of the last 30km of the stage over one minute down on the leaders.
And though the gap was still just over one minute with just 10km to go, the chase behind really got going at that point and they caught the leaders with 1.4km to go. That meant a 50-rider group swept in to Cáceres to contest the finish.
In the sprint to the line it was Squiban - who had been in the three-rider breakaway with Armitage and Emond - who proved fastest. She took the stage win from Maggie Coles-Lyster (Zaaf Cycling Team) and Susana Perez (Cantabria Deporte-Rio Miera).
Armitage placed 14th, while Mangan was 26th; both on the same time as the winner. Going into the hardest stage of the race tomorrow - 90km including an uphill finish at Piornal - Squiban leads overall after taking a 10-second time bonus for her victory today.
Armitage is 6th on the general classification just six seconds down while Mangan is 42nd at 1:05.
